Shadikal: How is it Possible?
by AutoKnight01
Summary: How could the being of peace and the ultimate weapon possibly get into a romantic relationship? Well, here's my theory. Major Shadikal. ShadowxTikal. Read and Review.
1. Let Us Begin

**Me: Well hello, bitches! This is AutoKnight01. Or AK as I like to be called. And I'm coming to a computer screen near you, with a brand new fic!**

**Shadow: So now you're going to try writing THREE stories at once?**

**Me: I always like to challenge myself, Shadow.**

**Shadow: I bet you won't last a month.**

**Me: Shadow, if I were you, I'd be praying for this story.**

**Shadow: Oh? And why is that, AK?**

**Me: Because this one is about YOU.**

**Shadow:…**

**Amy: You're doing a story about Shadow?**

**Me: And Tikal. Where's Tikal?**

**Tikal: Right here, AK.**

**Me: Tikal, Shadow, are you ready for me to write my very first Shadikal fanfic ever?**

**Tikal: YES!**

**Shadow: Whatever.**

**Me: Good enough for me! Let's get this rollin rollin rollin! Man I love that song! Keep rollin rollin rollin rollin! Yeah! Keep rollin rollin rollin rollin! Boy!**

**Shadow: AK!**

**Me: Sorry. I do not own any characters in relation to the universe of Sonic the Hedgehog. All the characters belong to Sega so please enjoy my tenth story. **

**Vector: You forgot to ask them to review!**

**Me: Oh yeah. And please review too.**

**PS: This takes place right after the game, Shadow The Hedgehog.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 1: Let us Begin**

**(Mobian Mountain Range; 12:00 AM)**

The stars and the half-moon were the only sources of light in the night. Over the mountain range, they shined with much more brilliance than one would ever see in a city. It was just too bad there was only one person there to see it. And this one person didn't really care about the beauty of the sky at all. He just stood there at the peak of the tallest mountain and stared up at the stars paying no attention to them at all. With his arms crossed, he had a very famous scowl on his face and a cold gaze in his ruby red eyes. The Ultimate Lifeform they called him. A hedgehog with black and red striped fur and golden bracelets and anklets. Shadow is what he went by to his friends. Well, he didn't really consider them his friends, but they considered him one.

Shadow was staring up to the sky, but the sky itself was not what he was trying to see. He was looking up because he knew exactly where his former home was right now in space. The Space Colony ARK. Where he was created by a brilliant professor and an insane alien warlord. It's where he first learned how to interact with other people. It's also where he made his first and what he considered his only friend. Maria. And unfortunately, that's where he also saw Maria get shot down by the very humans he promised her to protect.

He felt anger towards the humans, but he made a promise. And he can't break it. As soon as he found out what his true purpose in life was, he devoted his life to being a savior for the people. He had let go of the past, but not entirely. He still ached over having lost her. He felt guilty because they made a pact to visit Earth together. And yet, here he was on the surface. Without her. Without her voice. Without her smile. His "friends" have tried to get him to cheer up, but they were never able to get anywhere close to succeeding in that department.

As much as he wanted to, Shadow couldn't be happy. He had no idea why. Maybe he just missed Maria too much. They were very good friends on the ARK, and the hedgehog thought they could possibly become more. But before he could think, the tragedy happened and the only place he ever saw her again was inside his dreams. He swore he would never find a love that could even relate to Maria. She was always happy. Even in her final minutes, she had a smile on her face and asked Shadow to give the humans a chance to be a happy. That smile.

"I miss you." He muttered.

"Who do ya miss?"

Shadow felt no need to turn around. He knew the voice very well. Sonic the Hedgehog, his rival, was standing right behind him.

"It's none of your business, blue hedgehog." Shadow said in his deep whispery voice. "Why are you here?"

"Well I worry about ya." Sonic said. "You're always alone."

"Did it ever occur to you that I prefer it to be that way?" Shadow said.

"Oh it did." Sonic said. "I just think you need to give being around other people a chance and see how you like it."

"I'd rather not." Shadow said. "Now leave."

"Come on, Shadow. All of us just want you to be happy. That's all." Sonic said.

Shadow turned his head so Sonic only met his right eye and his scowl.

"You want me to be happy? Than just leave me alone!"

He turned his head and Sonic was once again looking at the back of his quills.

"Shadow, come on."

"I'm warning you, Sonic."

"Yeah? Or what?"

Shadow held his left arm straight out clearly so Sonic could see it. Then Shadow brought over his other hand and began to take of the bracelet on his life one.

"Alright! Jeez! I'm going!" Sonic took off down the mountain a bit angry at his rival.

Shadow gave a 'hm' and went back to staring beyond the stars. But it wasn't before long that he heard the familiar sound of flapping wings.

"Oh great. What does she want?"

Rouge the Bat landed right beside him and looked up with him.

"I'll admit this. I'm not one for stargazing, but it IS pretty dang gorgeous here." She said.

"I'm NOT stargazing." Shadow said.

"Well then what ARE you looking at?"

Shadow gave no answer or bodily movement. Rouge figured it out on her own in a few seconds.

"Oh that's right. The ARK is overhead here tonight." Rouge said.

Shadow gave a slight nod.

"Are you EVER going to let go of the past, Shadow? You said yourself once you defeated Black Doom you had put the past behind you."

"I SAID I did. But I guess it was easier said than done. I regained the full extent of my memory. And now they haunt me again."

"You need to get a girl." Rouge said.

"What I need is for you people to leave me alone."

"What are you going to do? Fight me?"

"No. I'll simply send you away."

"Really?" Rouge thought he was bluffing.

Shadow held up his right hand and opened up his palm. Then he reached behind his back with his left and pulled out of nowhere the green Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control."

A white ball of light appeared. He motioned it towards Rouge and the light floated to her. It made contact with her body and then it explained all over her. The light then disappeared along with Rouge herself.

"Really." Shadow muttered as he put the emerald away.

What Shadow did was a new way he discovered to do Chaos Control. He could send other people away, without having to warp himself. He went right back to what he was doing, hoping no one else would bother him. He got his wish. Throughout the night, he stood there, watching the sky and a single star that seemed to be slightly moving to the east. It was the ARK. He kept his eyes on it never letting them wander any place else.

**(Station Square; 12: 30 AM)**

On top of the tallest building, Sonic zipped up to it in his famous blue streak and looked back to the mountain range from where he had just come from.

"_We HAVE to make that Shadow enjoy life. He can't sulk forever. But the question is, how the hell do we make that happen?"_

**(Angel Island; Master Emerald Shrine; 12:32 AM)**

The giant green gem was glowing like always in its place. And in front of it, was the one sworn to protect it. Knuckles the Echidna. He was dead to the world with his very loud snoring. He was dreaming pleasantly despite all the noises. The crickets, the wind, the rocks falling down the giant staircase of his shrine. This guy was one heavy sleeper. But there was one thing he did wake up to. The sound of what was heard as a loud boom. He sat straight and looked at the Master Emerald. It was still in one piece, but it was acting rather odd. It was starting to shine brighter than usual. Then he saw something else. A small orange light emerged from the top of the emerald. It floated right in front of Knuckles and began to take on a shape.

One that he had seen before.

**Me: And that's where I'll end the first chapter. **

**Tikal: What? But I wasn't even in this one.**

**Me: Yeah you were. **

**Tikal: That little light form doesn't count to me.**

**Me: Whatever.**

**Sonic: Why is this chapter so short anyway?**

**Me: You mean you haven't noticed yet? In every single story I've ever written, the first chapter is always considerably shorter than all the rest. Then the chapters get longer.**

**Sonic: So the next chapter will definitely be longer.**

**Me: Yes. But right now I gotta get gone. Please leave a review and I'll get back with the next chapter as soon as I can. Until then, peace bitches.**


	2. Not So Ancient Anymore

**Me: Hey bitches! I return!**

**Tikal: Am I actually going to be in this chapter, AK?**

**Me: Well technically, you were in the last one.**

**Tikal: But I was only a silhouette. That doesn't really count.**

**Me: It's just how I roll, Tikal.**

**Amy: Are me and Sonikku gonna have any romance in this one, AK?**

**Me: You'll find out later, Amy. **

**Amy: But I wanna know now!**

**Me: And I am telling you right now. You'll find out later. But let's get going. I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other characters related. So without further ado, here's chapter two.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 2: Not So Ancient Anymore**

**(Angel Island; Master Emerald Shrine; 12:35 AM)**

The bright light was still there. And so was the silhouette. Knuckles recognized as someone who helped him and his friends from the past. The DISTANT past. At first he thought it was just a trick. Then he heard the shadow speak.

"Knuckles? Is that you?"

The voice was obviously female. And it sounded just perfectly identical to the person Knuckles thought it was. It was definitely her.

"Tikal? What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you had to stay within the Master Emerald."

The light then dimmed, And Knuckles saw Tikal clearly. But then his face turned as red as the rest of his body. Knuckles saw Tikal alright. In fact, he saw ALL of her. He immediately turned away.

"Knuckles? What's wrong?" Tikal asked.

"Uuuuuuhhhhhh….Tikal? You might wanna take a look at yourself."

Tikal was confused, but she wasn't when she looked down at her body and gave a small shriek. She wasn't wearing any clothes whatsoever. She only had her tiara on her head and the few gauze rings on her dreadlocks. She blushed as hard as Knuckles was and covered her chest.

"What happened to your clothes?" Knuckles asked.

"I-I'm not sure." Tikal said. "Well this is embarrassing."

"Hold on." Knuckles walked backwards behind the Master Emerald and opened his eyes.

On the ground of the shrine, there was a small trapdoor. He opened it up, reached in and pulled out a beach towel. He turned around again and handed the towel to Tikal.

"Thank you." Tikal wrapped the towel around her bare chest.

"Is it safe to look now?" Knuckles asked.

"Yes." Tikal replied.

Knuckles turned around and sighed in relief. But he and Tikal were still blushing.

"Maybe we should talk inside my house." Knuckles said.

"Your house?" Tikal said.

"Right down there." Knuckles said.

Tikal and saw a log cabin right behind the shrine.

"Oh. Okay." Tikal said.

Knuckles and Tikal walked downstairs and inside his house.

"Just be quiet okay. My girlfriend is upstairs sleeping." Knuckles said.

"You have a girlfriend?" Tikal asked.

"Yeah. Her name is Rouge. I'll introduce you tomorrow." Knuckles said.

"What's wrong with right now, Knuckie?"

Knuckles froze and saw Rouge halfway down the staircase in a pink nightgown.

"So tell me. Do you always bring naked girls in this house when I'm asleep?" Rouge didn't seem too happy.

"Rouge, I swear I can explain." Knuckles said.

"You can explain THIS?" Rouge demanded. "Oh Knux, I am DYING to hear this explanation."

"Take a seat and I'll try to make this quick." Knuckles said to Tikal.

Tikal nodded and kept the towel around her as she walked over to a chair and sat down. Knuckles pulled Rouge aside and explained to her that he knew Tikal. She had traveled from the past where she existed as part of the old echidna tripe that Knuckles descended from. She had helped them before in a past adventure involving a certain creature made of water. So technically, Knuckles met Tikal first before he met Rouge.

"So she's an old friend of yours?" Rouge asked.

"Yes. But she had to return to the Master Emerald with Chaos." Knuckles said. "I'm not sure what she's doing here."

"Well how come she's naked?" Rouge asked.

"Yeah. Your guess is as good as mine on that one." Knuckles said. "Look. All I know is that she's new to this world, and she's my friend. I'm not gonna let her go out all alone."

"Fine. She can stay here for a couple of days." Rouge said. "But we have to get her accustomed so she can get a place of her own."

"I'm sure Sonic and the others will help us out with that. They know her too." Knuckles said.

"Alright." Rouge walked over to Tikal with Rouge beside her. "I'm sorry I misjudged you. My name is Rouge."

"I'm Tikal. I'm sorry I don't have any clothes. I don't know why I don't. I had them on right before I came here."

"Don't sweat it. I'll go get you one of my nightgowns." Rouge went upstairs.

Knuckles was actually baffled by her behavior.

"She seems nice." Tikal said.

"Yeah. I've never seen her offer anyone her clothes before." Knuckles said.

Rouge came back down with a black nightgown for Tikal. Knuckles turned around as Tikal put it on. Knuckles turned back when Rouge said it was safe.

"I'll make up the couch for you." Knuckles went to go find some blankets, leaving Tikal and Rouge alone.

"So, you're from the past." Rouge said.

"Yes. That's right." Tikal replied.

"How come you came here?" Rouge asked. "There's no threat to this world right now."

"What about that Dr. Eggman?" Tikal asked.

"I would hardly consider Eggman a 'threat'." Rouge replied. "It's the same cycle. He attacks, and Sonic drives him away."

"Oh." Tikal said. "Well, I'm here because I'm tired of living within the Master Emerald just watching life go by. I want to be a part of life now."

"Honey, life is a lot harder here than it was in the past." Rouge said in a warning voice.

"Either way, I want to live my own life. Chaos wasn't thrilled about it, but he understood." Tikal said.

"That water beast?" Rouge asked.

"Yes. He's my friend." Tikal said.

"Huh." Rouge muttered.

Knuckles came down with some blankets and a couple of pillows. He spread the blankets over the couch and placed the pillows at the end.

"There you go." Knuckles said. "I know it's not much."

"It'll do just fine. Thank you both." Tikal said.

"Don't mention it." Rouge said. "Come on, Knux. Let's go to bed. I was just about to come and get you anyway."

"But don't you have to stay out there and guard the Master Emerald?" Tikal asked.

"I have an alarm system." Knuckles said. "If someone tries to steal it, I'll know."

"Oh." Tikal muttered. "Well, goodnight."

"Goodnight." Knuckles and Rouge both said.

The red echidna and the snowy bat went upstairs and Tikal settled herself on the couch and laid her head on the pillow. Pretty soon, she drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the sun shined through the window of the house and hit Tikal's face. Her eyes squinted and then they slowly opened letting the cobalt blue of them take a look around. She was still in Knuckles' house. So that assured her the events of last night were not a dream. She was really here. In the real world. Outside the Master Emerald. She sat up, yawned, and stretched her arms just as Knuckles came downstairs.

"Morning, Tikal." He said.

"Good morning, Knuckles." Tikal greeted back. "So where's Rogue?"

Knuckles chuckled. "She's upstairs still asleep. And her name is _Rouge."_

"Oh. I'm sorry." Tikal said.

"Don't sweat it." Knuckles said back. "You want some breakfast?"

"I'm alright." Tikal said.

"Come on. You live here in this world now. And the first rule is, always have breakfast." Knuckles said.

"Really?"

"If you want to be energetic throughout the day." Knuckles replied.

Tikal shrugged. "Then I guess I'll have some. What are you making?"

"What do you want?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know what kind of food there is here in this time." Tikal said.

Knuckles smiled. "I'll be right back."

Knuckles picked up a basket on the floor and walked right out the door. Ten minutes later, the red echidna returned with the basket full of a variety of fresh picked fruit.

"How about a fruit salad?" Knuckles said.

"A fruit what?" Tikal had no clue what that was.

"A fruit salad. You'll see." Knuckles said.

"I had no idea you were good with food." Tikal said.

"Well…I had to learn so I wouldn't have to blow all my money on restaurants." Knuckles said.

"Huh?" Once again, Tikal was puzzled by what Knuckles had meant.

"Don't worry. I'll help you get accustomed here. Sonic and the others will be glad to help too. I'm sure." Knuckles said.

"Sonic?" Tikal muttered.

"You remember Sonic. Right?" Knuckles asked.

"Of course. How could I forget?" Tikal said.

"No one ever forgets Sonic." Rouge said as she came down the stairs. "Morning all."

"Hey. How's a fruit salad sound?" Knuckles asked.

"Pretty good." Rouge said.

It took Knuckles at least fifteen more minutes of chopping up different kinds of fruit. Mostly this one consisted of peaches, grapes, bananas, and strawberries. After he was done cutting, he slid them all of the cutting board and into a bowl. The Emerald watcher then placed the bowl on the table where he ate and called the girls over. Tikal was surprised at how good it was. She would have never thought Knuckles would be the cooking kind. But she didn't really understand what he meant about his money and restaurants. Oh well. She paid it no mind. She'd learn in time. After the finished, Knuckles took the bowl and placed it in the sink.

"So should we call Sonic and tell him we have a new addition to the group?" Knuckles said.

"Not just yet." Rouge said. "Call everyone and tell them to meet us at Station Square Park."

"Alright." Knuckles went to find the phone.

Knuckles called everyone. He couldn't get a hold of Sonic, Shadow, the Chaotix, or Amy. But everyone else he got through to. Silver, Blaze, and Tails. Those three agreed to the terms and Knuckles hung up.

"Sonic's probably on the run from Amy." Knuckles said.

"The Chaotix are probably on a case." Rouge said.

"And as for Shadow…" Knuckles started.

"He probably wouldn't go even if we DID get through to him." Rouge finished.

"Who is this Shadow?" Tikal asked.

"He's just a friend who has a lot of issues." Knuckles said.

"They're not issues, Knuckles." Rouge said. "Shadow is just a very complex person."

"Complex?" Tikal muttered.

"You'll meet him one of these days and you'll see for yourself." Rouge said.

"It's ironic. He's your closest friend but yet he warped you away last night when you tried talking to him." Knuckles said.

"What?" Tikal said.

"Don't worry about it, sweetie." Rouge said. "Come on. Let's see if I have some clothes that fit you."

Rouge took Tikal's hand and led her up to the bedroom. Five minutes later, they both came down. Rouge was dressed in her usual black suit with the pink hearted breast plate and her long white boots and gloves. Tikal on the other hand was wearing clothes completely different than what she would usually wear. She had on blue jeans, a black tank top that showed off her stomach, and black white shoes.

"Wow. Not bad." Knuckles said.

"I'm not sure. This just doesn't seem like me." Tikal was looking down at her body examining the clothes on her body.

"This is how most girls dress in this time." Rouge said. "You'll see when we go down to Station Square today."

"Yeah. I'll be going too." Knuckles said.

"You're going to leave the Emerald?" Tikal asked.

"Like I said. I have an alarm system in place." Knuckles said. "If anyone tries to steal it, they're in for surprise."

Tikal wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Okay." She muttered.

"Let's go." Rouge said.

The three of them left the house and headed off the island.

**(Station Square Park; 10:30 AM)**

Peace and beauty were what the park gave everyone who entered it. In a wide open field, trees and grass gave the area the brightest green anyone had ever seen. There was just one black and red thing in the park. That thing was Shadow.

He hadn't received Knuckles' call, but he was already there because he knew it would be quiet and no one would be in that particular field. But that silence was broken a few seconds later when he saw a blue streak fly by and make a strong gust of wind. The streak came back and Sonic stood next to Shadow.

"Hey Shadow. How ya doing?" Sonic waved.

Shadow didn't even move.

"Huh. Still angst-ridden?" Sonic said.

"Hmph." Shadow muttered.

Sonic sighed. "Come on, Shadow. Just talk to me. What's bothering you?"

"I don't have to tell you anything." Shadow said.

"Shadow, you've been acting like this ever since you defeated Black Doom. And that was a month ago." Sonic said.

"So?"

"So why are you being like this? You should be happy that you defeated him. Hell, the commander of GUN even offered you a job." Sonic said.

"And I DID appreciate it. But I said no."

"Why?"

"Exactly like I said last night. It's none of your business." Shadow said. "Now tell me why you're disturbing my peace."

"SONIKKU!"

Sonic cringed and looked back to see his biggest fan/stalker charging towards him with her arms ready to hug.

"There you are my darling blue wonder!"

Sonic looked back at Shadow. "That's why."

"Does she ever give up?" Shadow asked.

"I've known her for nearly five years now and she's never stopped. Gotta go."

Sonic turned to run, but then he found that he couldn't move. He tried to move his other body parts, but he failed in moving them too.

"What's going on? Why can't I move?" Sonic said.

Sonic was able to turn his head and saw Shadow with his hands behind his back. He also saw a green glow coming from behind his back. Now Sonic knew what was going on. Shadow was using another form of Chaos Control to keep him frozen in place without stopping time.

"Let me go, Shadow." Sonic growled.

"Or else what? You can't even move." Shadow said.

"But why?" Sonic begged.

"Why NOT?" Shadow retorted.

Sonic closed his eyes and prepared for impact. Ten seconds later, Amy tackled him to the ground and Shadow released him.

"Oh Sonic! I've been looking all over for you!" Amy said.

"Why exactly?" Sonic asked.

"Because." Amy answered. "I've just figured out where I want our wedding to be. Do you want to see?"

"Not even if I was old enough to be married." Sonic said.

"Aw come on, Sonic. At least let's take a look." Blaze said as she and Silver walked up.

Amy and Sonic looked up and saw her and the psychic hedgehog.

"What are you two doing here?" Sonic asked.

"Knuckles called and told us to meet him here. Why are YOU here?" Silver asked.

"The reason is on top of me." Sonic said.

"Hi guys." Now Tails flew in.

"Did Knuckles call you too?" Blaze asked.

"Yeah. How did you know that?" Tails asked.

"He called us too." Silver said.

"Amy, can I get up now?" Sonic said.

"Are you going to run away?" Amy asked.

"No. I wanna see why Knuckles called everyone here." Sonic said.

Amy agreed and let Sonic get up. He turned to Shadow.

"What about you Shadow? Did Knuckles call you too?" he asked.

"No. I've been here for hours." Shadow said. "Thanks for breaking the silence."

"Oh get over it." Rouge said.

Rouge had just joined the group with Knuckles and a peach echidna that few of them knew. They were all mainly focused on the echidna.

"Um, Knuckles?" Amy said. "Who is that?"

"Yeah. I thought you were the last echidna." Tails said.

"Actually Tails, you, Sonic, and Amy have met her before." Knuckles said.

Sonic, Tails, and Amy looked at each other.

"Are you sure about that, Knuckles? I don't remember her at all." Amy said.

"Come on. Think you guys." Knuckles said.

Sonic rubbed his chin as he looked up and down the girl's body. Then he walked forward until he was right in front of her. He examined her again. Mostly her face. Then he noticed something. The golden headband with the gauze wrappings around some of her dreadlocks.

"Tikal?" he said. "Tikal is that you?"

Tikal smiled. "You remember me?"

"Of course I do." Sonic said. "You helped me defeat Perfect Chaos nearly a year ago."

"Now I remember you!" Tails went over to her. "I met you in a weird vision I had once."

"Yes. That was me." Tikal said.

"Yeah. That same thing happened to me too." Amy walked over to her. "But I seem to remember you wearing different clothes."

Tikal turned away and blushed. "Please don't make me explain that."

"Um…okay." Amy said.

"Wait." Silver and Blaze walked over.

"So she's the echidna you told us about?" Blaze said.

"Yep. This is Tikal." Sonic said.

"So you're the one who existed in the past." Silver said. "That's weird. Me and Blaze here come from the future. My name is Silver."

"And like he said. I'm Blaze."

"Very nice to meet you." Tikal said.

Then the female echidna looked past all of them and saw a black hedgehog leaning against a tree with his eyes closed. She walked up to him.

"Hello there." She said politely. "My name is Tikal."

"Like I care." Shadow said.

Tikal lost her smile and started to nervously back away from him. Rouge went up to him and whacked him upside the head.

"What'd you do that for?" He growled.

"That's not how you say hello to a new friend." Rouge said.

"Who said she was my friend?" he said.

"Say hello and tell her your name. NOW." Rouge said.

The hedgehog growled and walked up to her. "My name is Shadow the Hedgehog."

"So you're Shadow. Knuckles has already told me about you."

"Did he tell you that I like to be left alone?" Shadow asked.

"Um, no." Tikal said.

"Well now you know." Shadow ran off.

"Shadow!" Rouge shouted.

It was no use. Shadow was already out of hearing range.

"Oh dear." Tikal said. "I've angered him."

"Don't worry about him, hon." Rouge said. "He's always angry."

"I wouldn't say angry per se." Sonic said. "More like he's just not a people person."

"Because he always angry." Knuckles said.

"And depressing." Amy said.

"Okay. Shadow's a lot of things. But he's still our friend." Sonic said.

"Even though he considers none of us HIS friends?" Silver said.

"He's still OUR friend whether he likes it or not. And we seriously have to help our friend enjoy life again." Sonic turned to Tikal. "But first we have to give our new friend Tikal a tour of the city."

Tikal smiled. "Thank you, Sonic."

"And we have to get you some clothes of your own. If I let you borrow mine all the time, I might have to go shopping." Rouge said.

"Did someone say 'shopping'?" Amy said.

Everyone sweatdropped. If there was one thing Amy Rose loved more than Sonic, it was shopping.

"Oh I already have an entire wardrobe in mind for her." Amy said.

"We'll let her pick out what she wants, Amy." Blaze said. "Let's show her around first."

Amy agreed and then all of them walked out of the park to show Tikal the city. As they walked Tikal looked back in the direction Shadow had run away, wondering why he did.

"_Shadow the Hedgehog. His distance from his friends is confusing. But still, there's just something about him. Something that puzzles me. What is it?"_

**Me: And BAM! End of chapter!**

**Amy: Aaawww. You couldn't go on any longer?**

**Vector: And why haven't the Chaotix come into the story yet?**

**Me: Vector, there is a very good chance you might not come into at all. I have no idea how to fit you into this.**

**Charmy: Aw come on, AK. Have a heart.**

**Shadow: He'll bring whoever he wants into it!**

**Charmy:….okay.**

**Me: Thank you, Shadow. Now I have to get back to my other works. This one seriously needed to update. I'll be back with chapter three. Until then, peace bitches.**


	3. A Wager

**Me: Hey bitches! It's about time I updated on this one, isn't it?**

**Shadow: You're damn right! I've been waiting forever! **

**Me: Jeez, Shadow! Calm down already! I've had a lot going on!**

**Silver: Oh yeah? Like what?**

**Me: Well first there's the AutoKnights, then I had to finish up A Spy's Day Off, and then I started a new story starring you and Blaze.**

**Silver: Really?**

**(Silver goes and looks at my stories)**

**Silver: It's Blazing on the West Side. That's kind of a strange title.**

**Blaze: I think it fits. **

**Me: Thank you. But now then, let's get to this chapter. I shall be doing the disclaimer this time. I, AK, do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other characters in this story. They are all owned by Sega. So here we go. Please review everyone.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 3: A Wager**

**(Streets of Station Square; 11:05 AM)**

Tikal was at a loss for words when she saw the city. The buildings were so big and there were so many people. How could she go from a small tribal village, to a big city like this? She was looking up every second at the very big skyscrapers.

"They're pretty big, aren't they?" Sonic said.

"Yes." Tikal replied. "The biggest thing we had in my village was the shrine to the Master Emerald."

Rouge made a face at Tikal. "THAT was the biggest structure back then. Wow. You really do come from the past, don't you?"

"Yes. I do." Tikal said.

"What was it like to live there without having to worry about danger?" Blaze asked.

Tikal frowned. Obviously, Blaze didn't know about the whole Chaos thing. She saw Knuckles walk over to her and whisper something in her ear. Blaze's eyes went wide. She faced Tikal again.

"Never mind." She said.

"Oh. It's okay." Tikal said. "Before Chaos went out of control, or before my father started to crave power, life in my tribe was very peaceful. I always spent my free time with the Chao."

"Huh. Lucky." Silver said.

"What?" Tikal said to him.

"Oh. It's just that me and Blaze are from another time too." Silver said.

"Yeah. Me and him are from the future." Blaze said.

Tikal was fascinated upon hearing that. "Really?"

"Yeah. But it's not as great as you would think." Silver said.

"Why not?" Tikal asked.

"Well, in our time, the world was devastated and life was a struggle." Blaze said.

"We came here to this time in hopes of fixing our own." Silver said.

"And did you?" Tikal asked.

Silver and Blaze rubbed the back of their heads.

"Well, once we saw how peaceful it was here, we got too sidetracked to even think about our own time anymore." Blaze said.

"So we just decided to stay here." Silver said.

Tikal looked at the two of them strangely.

"You just left your home and friends behind?" Tikal asked.

"Our home was destroyed." Blaze said.

"And as for friends, before me and Blaze came here, the only friends we had were each other." Silver said.

"Plus our time is like a few hundred years from now. So I really don't think we have to worry about it." Blaze said.

"I'm glad you stayed." Tails said. "It's been really cool having you two around."

The hedgehog and the cat smiled.

"Thanks, Tails." They both said.

They continued walking and as they did, each of them told Tikal how they lived life in the world of Mobius. Sonic ran, Amy chased him, Tails builds things, Silver and Blaze live together as a couple, Knuckles and Rouge, well we already know what they do. Learning about all of them, Tikal asked a question.

"What about Shadow?"

Everyone else traded glances with one another. They weren't really sure of they should tell her about Shadow. Well they could, but not in full detail.

"Shadow spends most of his time alone." Sonic said.

"But why would he willingly block everyone out of his life?" Tikal asked.

"It's just how he is." Amy said. "Shadow is a hedgehog that is very hard to describe."

"We're not saying we can't, but it's very difficult to try. Unless it's Shadow himself telling you." Rouge said.

"He seemed so angry." Tikal remembered the cold stare he gave her in the park.

"That's just Shadow." Tails said.

"Never mind that depressing hedgehog." Amy said. "Let's go on top of that building over there. I hear it has one of the most romantic views of the city. Even during the daytime! Come on, Sonic!"

Amy grabbed Sonic's hand and darted straight for what was considered to be the tallest building in Station Square. Sonic couldn't break free of Amy's kung-fu grip, just like always. Everyone behind the two hedgehogs sweatdropped and decided to follow them in. All of them crowded into the elevator and Tails hit the button for the roof level.

"What is this room we're in?" Tikal asked.

"It's called an elevator." Tails said.

"But what does it do?"

Everyone giggled.

"It elevates people." Rouge answered.

"I don't understand." Tikal said.

"Some buildings have more than one floor in them. This elevator helps people get to the floors above them." Silver said.

"Buildings with more than one floor?" Tikal was surprised. "Wow. I guess I have a lot to learn."

Thirty seconds later, the doors opened up and they all went out to the roof of the building. They were all about one thousand feet above the ground and they could see everything from up there. The other buildings, the entire park, and the ocean sparkled with the sunlight.

"The people here did a good job repairing the damages after Chaos attacked." Tikal said.

"Yeah. It took them like, six months." Sonic said.

"Hmph."

Everyone aside from Tikal new that hmph. They had noticed all the beautiful scenery from the top of that building, but they had failed to notice that Shadow as up there as well.

"What are you doing here?" Silver asked.

"The same thing I was trying to do in the park. Get some peace and quiet." Shadow said.

"Well I gotta leave anyway. My plane's been acting up and I really need to find out what's wrong." Tails said. "See ya."

Tails jumped off the roof of the building and began to spin his tails so he could fly. He took off for the Mystic Ruins where hi workshop was.

"You know what? We gotta go too." Blaze said.

"She's right. Me and her are going on a lunch date." Silver said.

Silver picked up Blaze bridal style and then his whole body was surrounded in cyan energy. Silver's feet lifted up off the ground and then he used his psychokinesis to fly away with Blaze in his arms.

"Is there anyone here who CAN'T fly?" Tikal asked.

"That would be Amy." Sonic said.

"What? Neither can you or Blaze. Shadow can't even fly." Amy said.

"You're wrong." Sonic raised a finger. "Silver can fly with his psychic powers, Tails has his namesakes, Knuckles can fly to a degree, Rouge has her wings, and as for me, Shadow, and Blaze, the three of us have super forms. We can fly when we turn into our super forms."

"He's right." Shadow mumbled

"Heck, even Cream can fly." Rouge said. "And that Amy, leaves you being the only one here who can't fly."

"Well what about her?" Amy pointed to Tikal.

"Actually, I can glide like Knuckles can." Tikal said.

"Oh." Amy hung her head down.

"Don't feel bad, Amy. At least you're cute." Sonic said.

Amy perked right up and hearts were in her eyes.

"Sonikku, did you just say I'm cute?"

Sonic started to panic. _"CRAP CRAP CRAP! DAMN MY KIND MOUTH! _

Sonic could only think of one way out. He literally ran all the way down the side of the building.

"Hey! Come back here, Sonic. You can't escape your cutie!"

Amy ran back to the elevator. Leaving, only Knuckles, Shadow, Tikal, and Rouge. Smirking evilly, Rouge thought of an idea.

"Say Tikal. Me and Knuckles have to get back to the Master Emerald. The alarm system has a bug in it that I need to fix." She said.

"There is?" Knuckles asked.

"YES." Rouge said trying to make Knuckles catch on to what she was doing. "But there's so much city to see. Why doesn't Shadow show you around?"

"What?" Tikal, Shadow, and Knuckles all said together.

"Sure. It'll be fun. Shadow knows the city pretty good. He can show you around." Rouge walked over to Shadow. "You WILL show her around." She whispered.

"No I won't." Shadow whispered.

"Shadow, I can't take it anymore. Your sullen attitude makes me want to throw myself off a cliff it's so depressing. Either you start enjoying life and being around other people, or so help me I will take your ring bracelets and throw them in the ocean. And trust me. I can."

Shadow knew she was serious. She could take his bracelets because she was so sneaky. And if he lost those, he wouldn't even have enough energy to run. He was cornered.

"Alright fine." He whispered.

"Be nice to her." Rouge said. "She's new here so she has to get adjusted. Make her happy."

Rouge walked back over to Tikal. "He'd be happy to show you around."

Tikal smiled. "Really?"

"Really?" Knuckles added.

"Yes really. He'll show you around." Rouge said. "He knows where we live. So he'll take you back when you're ready to come back. See ya."

Rouge took off flying and Knuckles glided right behind her. Tikal looked over to Shadow. He seemed nice enough. But his eyes seemed full of hate. But on the other hand, she had never seen a pair of eyes that were full on red like that.

"Sooooo….what kind of food is there around here?" she asked.

Shadow uncrossed his arms. Rouge told her to make Tikal happy. And He promised Maria he would give everyone a chance to be happy.

Shadow went over to her and pulled out his green Chaos Emerald. Tikal had no idea what he was doing with it.

"Why do you have that?" she asked.

"Just watch." Shadow said.

The Emerald started to glow in its respected color. Shadow grabbed Tikal's arm.

"Chaos…CONTROL!"

The Emerald shined brighter and then the two of them vanished.

**(Outside Station Square)**

Sonic was still running from Amy. And to his surprise, she had managed to catch up with him. How she was able to pull that off was beyond him. But he did know one thing. The chasing must end. He skidded to a stop and let Amy catch up to him. When she stopped she bent over and put her hands on her knees and started to take deep breaths.

"Why *PANT* did you *PANT* stop, Sonic?" she panted.

"I just wanna ask what it's gonna take to make you stop chasing me." Sonic said.

Amy caught her breath and looked at the blue hedgehog.

"It's simple. Date me." Amy said.

"No."

"Then I guess you better start running again." Amy said.

"Okay! Let's try to work something out here." Sonic said.

"You mean…like a deal?" Amy said.

Sonic started to think about that. What kind of deal would she go for? But then he thought of something else. It didn't have to be an exact deal. But more like a bet. And he thought of the perfect one. It wouldn't be fair to Amy, but he needed to make the chasing stop.

"More like a wager." Sonic said.

"A bet?" Amy asked.

"Yeah." Sonic said. "If I win, you leave me alone and the chasing stops for at least a couple of months."

"And if I win?" Amy asked.

"I'll take you on the most romantic date you've ever been on." Sonic said.

He sounded confident, but as soon as Amy heard the date part, she agreed to the bet. Although she had no idea what it was.

"What's the bet?" Amy asked.

"It involves Shadow." Sonic said. "If you can make Shadow fall in love with any girl, I'll take you on the date of your life."

Amy nearly face planted. She had to make Shadow fall in love? Was that even possible?

"I have to make Shadow fall for a girl?"

"Well if you don't think you're up to it. I understand." Sonic said.

Amy smirked. "You got a bet."

"Now let's set up some ground rules." Sonic said. "No strippers, hookers, or any girl who's paid to please a man. And we're going to spy on him to make sure he really feels something."

"Okay. Is there a certain time limit?" Amy asked.

"It's the first of August today. I'll give you two months." Sonic said.

"Sounds fair to me. Shake on it?" Amy extended her hand.

Sonic put out his own hand but just before Amy grabbed it, he pulled it away.

"One more thing." He said. "Shadow has to be the one to call back for a second date."

Amy's eyes bugged out. This bet was air tight. It would be nearly impossible with the terms being put into play here. But if it meant she would get to go on a date with Sonic, she'd do it.

"Alright then. We have a deal."

Sonic shook Amy's hand and then ran off. Amy immediately began to formulate some ideas.

"Let's see. This is Shadow we're talking about here. Which means I got a lot of work to do."

She ran for Cream's house. If there was someone who could help her with this, it was Cream.

**Tikal: Aw, you're ending it here?**

**Me: Yes Tikal. I'm ending it here.**

**Sonic: That is probably one of the most complicated bets I've ever seen. **

**Me: I make a lot of things in my life complicated. Well I wish I could talk more, but I can't I have to get back to working on my other work. I'll be back with chapter four. Until then, peace bitches. **


	4. Welcome to Station Sqaure

**Me: Hey bitches! Guess where I am!**

**Amy: We know, AK. Right now, you're in Pismo Beach. And it's fabulous.**

**Rouge: I've already caught some rays in the sand.**

**Me: And just the other day, I rode an ATV in the dunes.**

**Shadow: I rode with you. Man those things haul ass.**

**Sonic: I usually run, but damn! Those wheels were awesome!**

**Cream: Mr. Sonic on an ATV? Wow.**

**Me: Yes it's weird. But let's get going. I'll do the disclaimer again. I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other characters in his world. They all are the property of Sega. So now, let's get to chapter four.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 4: Welcome to Station Square**

**(Station Square; 11:35 AM)**

The tour of the city wasn't actually as torturing as Shadow thought it would be. He showed Tikal around the basic places. The beach, Emerald Coast, the theatre, and the entrance to the GUN headquarters. Tikal listened to every word Shadow had said about each place. And she was kind of enjoying being around Shadow. It pleased her to know that she wasn't getting on his bad side at all. She thought he was just someone who hated to be around anyone breathing. As far as she knew, he still was and he was only doing this because Rouge told him to. But at least he was staying with her and not being distant. And he was communicating. That's a start.

"They sell food everywhere around here at concession stands." Shadow said. "Or if you want, just go into a restaurant and spend even more money."

"Oh." Tikal listened closely.

Then Tikal remembered something else. How she got down on the ground. Shadow had in his possession one of the Chaos Emeralds. But she had no idea what he did. He said, Chaos Control. But what was it?

"Um," She hesitated but went on. "I hope you don't mind my asking, but what was that you did with the Chaos Emerald back there?"

Shadow looked at her. At least she hadn't asked him a personal question or something like that. He pulled out the Chaos Emerald.

"It's a technique that only me, Sonic, and Silver can pull off. It's called Chaos Control." Shadow said.

"What does it do?" Tikal asked.

"It manipulates time and space so it allows us to warp through it." Shadow explained.

"Really?" Tikal was astounded. She had been interested in the Chaos Emeralds for a long time. But she had never known they had that kind of power before. "How are you able to do it?"

Shadow did not want to answer that. The only one who could use Chaos Control before he was created was Black Doom. And he didn't want to tell her that he was his father. He had enough people scared of him as it is. So he did the sensible thing. He lied.

"I just learned how to naturally." He said.

Tikal nodded and then the two of them continued on. They continued walking through the city and Tikal had noticed that some of the people were backing away from Shadow as they passed by them. She had absolutely no idea why. Shadow came to a halt and Tikal looked up and saw a huge sign that read, Twinkle Park.

"What is this?" Tikal asked.

"Twinkle Park." The ebony hedgehog replied. "It's an amusement park."

Tikal was confused by the term. "Amusement Park?"

"It's a place couples go to have fun with each other. Parents bring kids there as well to keep them happy." Shadow said.

"Can we go in?" Tikal asked.

"It costs money to go in. Something I don't have much of right now." Shadow said.

"Oh. Maybe another time, then." Tikal stated.

Shadow was also noticing a lot of things about Tikal. Her voice. It sounded a lot like Maria's. She was sweet, polite, caring, and very curious. Even her eyes were dark blue like hers. Was this supposed to be some sort of sign? He waved it off. Maybe it was just coincidence. But she was still a nice girl. At least he knew that. They continued their trek through the city but then Tikal stopped in front of a very wide building. It read on the top, SS Central Station. Shadow came up next to her.

"That's the train station." He told her.

"Train?" Tikal wondered.

"It's a method of transportation here." Shadow stated. "There are a lot of different methods of transportation. You got cars which you've seen a lot of on the streets. Boats, trains, planes, bikes, skates."

"Uuuuhhhh…." Tikal had no idea what those things were.

"Don't worry. You'll learn." Shadow said. "Come on. One or two more things and then I'm done."

Shadow walked off and Tikal followed. Soon, they were in front of the entrance to yet another building. It had bright lights on it and said, Casino.

"What is this?" Tikal asked.

"This is Casinopolis." Shadow explained. "It's where people come to gamble their money away, or gain more if their lucky."

"How does it work?" Tikal asked curious.

"Basically you got a small amount of money. You walk in there and try to turn it into a bigger amount by playing certain games." Shadow stated.

"What kind of games?" Tikal asked.

"Mostly card games. They're very hard to explain, so please don't make me." Shadow asked of her.

"If you don't want to." Tikal said. "Maybe one day, I'll find out for myself."

"Maybe." He said. "Well that's the city. There isn't really much more to show."

"Maybe I should get back to Angel Island now." Tikal said.

"Maybe." Shadow muttered.

"Uumm," Tikal seemed a bit nervous to ask. "I hope this isn't asking too much, but would you mind taking me there?"

"Hmph." He muttered once more. "Alright. Come here."

Tikal came close to Shadow and he pulled out his Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos…CONTROL!"

The green light enveloped them both and then the light vanished along with them as well.

**(Angel Island; Master Emerald Shrine; 12:35 PM)**

It was sunny skies with a slight gentle breeze. Perfect weather for a picnic. That's exactly what Knuckles and Rouge were doing. Knuckles had a blanket laid out on the grass in front of the Master Emerald Shrine. And on it was Knuckles, Rouge and a basket full of food. Rouge and Knuckles were feeding each other grapes and smiling at each other.

Just then, a familiar green glow appeared in front of them and then Shadow and Tikal came into view. The peach echidna went over to Knuckles and Rouge.

"So how do you like the city?" Knuckles asked.

"It's okay." Tikal answered. "But I still prefer the peace of the island."

"Yeah I know how that feels." Knuckles said.

Rouge got up and walked over to Shadow.

"We're you nice to her?" Rouge sounded like she would kill him if she learned he yelled at the poor girl."

Tikal came over. "It's okay Rouge. He was very polite to me." She said.

Knuckles seemed surprised to hear that. "Shadow? Polite? That's new."

"Whatever. I'm gone." Shadow stepped back so no one would be caught in the radius of Chaos Control. Then he glanced at Tikal. "I guess I'll see around sometime."

Tikal smiled. "That would be nice."

Shadow took out his emerald and warped away with Chaos Control. Knuckles and Rouge were once again surprised at Shadow's words. I'll see you around? Usually Shadow's good bye words were either, Stay the hell away from me, Leave me alone, or the infamous, Chaos Control. He never said anything that hinted he wanted to someone again. Tikal must be different.

Back in Station Square, Shadow appeared and put his emerald away. He immediately started to think. Why was he so polite around her? Normally he never acted that way around other people. And he didn't even know he was doing it with her. That's what got to him. He was perfectly calm around her today, and he didn't even realize he was until he left the island.

Shadow waved it off again. There was no way he thought it meant anything. He would have continued to think but then something grabbed his arm. He looked and saw that it was Amy.

"Wrong hedgehog, Rose." He said.

"Actually, Shadow, I'm looking for YOU." Amy said.

Shadow shuddered at what he thought that meant.

"You're not gonna start stalking ME now, are you?" he asked.

Amy giggled. "No. Of course not, silly. I just wanna talk to you."

Shadow groaned. Not this again.

"I'm not talking to anyone." Shadow said.

"Just listen." Amy put up her hands. "I think you have to get out more and meet someone, Shadow. So, I set up a date tonight for you and one of my old friends."

Shadow looked like he was going to explode.

"A blind date? Rose! I don't even like normal dates! No chance in hell!" Shadow yelled.

Amy scowled at him. "Okay, here's the thing. This friend of mine, HATES being stood up. So you're going tonight. Or so help me I'll beat your black ass back to last year!"

Everyone in range of hearing that remark stared at Amy. Even Shadow was shocked she said something like that. But Amy didn't give a rat's ass about all the looks she was receiving.

"Catch my drift, Shadow?" she asked.

Shadow had to nod at this. So he did. Because he knew no matter how fast he ran, no matter where he tried to hide, Amy would find him. She had a built in Hedgehog radar.

"Good." Amy piped and grabbed Shadow's arm. "Now come on. We have to practice."

"Practice?" Shadow asked. "Practice what?"

"Dating of course." Amy smiled. "I've arranged a practice date at Cream's house. There, you will learn about etiquette, and manners."

Shadow groaned. There just HAD to be a price for him having a nice time.

**Me: And that's where I'll end this one.**

**Amy: Aaawww. You make them so short.**

**Me: I know, Amy. But I have other stories to work on. And my new one at most.**

**Sonic: You mean That 70's Hedgehog? **

**Shadow: I'm flattered you chose me to be Hyde for that.**

**Me: No problem, Shadow. I'll get to work on that one real soon. But I got other stuff to work on. Chapter five will be here soon enough. Until then, peace bitches.**


	5. Shadow on Dating

**Me: Hey bitches! Sorry it took me longer than usual to update this one.**

**Sonic: A lot of things happening with you?**

**Me: Yeah. I got back from Pismo, and then I started college a few days ago.**

**Vector: You're in college now?**

**Me: Yep.**

**Vanilla: Be careful dear. When I was in college, I had a few nights that were just absolutely crazy.**

**Me: Studying give you a headache?**

**Vanilla: Um…not really. I just partied too hard on a few nights and experimented a bit with my roommate, Georgette.**

**(Everyone looks at Vanilla with very strange looks and Vector is drooling with his jaw dropped)**

**Me: Um…you don't have to worry about me, Miss Vanilla. I won't be "experimenting" with my roommate. I don't even have one.**

**Shadow: Yeah. He goes to city college. **

**Me: Exactly. So who's gonna do it this time around? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Cream: Oh I guess it's me. Ahem. AK does no own me, my mother, or anyone else from my world. We all belong to Sega.**

**Vanilla: Well done, Cream.**

**Cream: Thank you, mama.**

**Me: Please enjoy chapter 5 and please review.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 5: Shadow on Dating**

**(Green Hill Zone; Cream's House; 1:00 PM)**

Amy was on a mission. She had to get Shadow to fall in love with a girl in two months and then it was date time with her dream hunk hog. But even she knew this wasn't going to be easy. Sonic probably set the whole thing up so it guaranteed him the win of the bet. With all the rules, it had to be. Shadow has to be truly in love, no strippers or hookers, they were going to secretly spy on him to make sure he doesn't get violent, and Shadow has to be the one to call the girl for a second date. If the girl calls, it wouldn't work.

Despite the overwhelming odds being against her, that would never be enough to stop Amy. Sonic promised her the date of her life, and she was going to get it. She had just been let into Cream's house by the young rabbit herself and then they began the lessons.

"Okay, Shadow. Are you ready?" Amy asked.

"Hmph." It was clear on the way there Shadow was not at all tickled by the idea of him dating.

Amy had to change that. If she couldn't do it, then no one could.

"Alright. So what are we doing here?" Shadow asked.

Amy gestured over to a table that was set for two. "It's simple. The best way to get ready for a date is to have a practice date."

Shadow just stared at the pink hedgehog with a bit of anger in his red eyes. "…what?"

"You heard me. This is a practice date. You'll sit across from the girl you'll practice on, and me and Cream here will watch and view your progress." Amy said.

"Hi there." Cream piped up.

"Ugh. So who am I going to be practicing with?" Shadow muttered.

"My mother." Cream answered.

Shadow sighed. Out of all the people this fake date could be with, he was relieved it wasn't with the psycho pink hedgehog or the way too young rabbit. Vanilla walked in the room and took a seat at the table.

"Uuuuuuggghhhh. Alright, let's do this." Shadow groaned.

The ebony hedgehog took the seat across from the grown rabbit and slouched over. Amy immediately went over.

"Sit up straight, Shadow. Posture says a lot about a guy." Amy explained.

Shadow eyed the girl. "It does?"

"Oh yes." Vanilla added.

"Take a look at Sonic. The way he stands in those hero poses of his. Oooohhhh…it's so dreamy." Amy looked up at the ceiling with her hands together.

Shadow rubbed his forehead and stood up straight.

"Happy?"

"Yes. That's better. You ready?" Amy asked.

"Yeah." Shadow replied. "But know this. You compare me to Sonic one more time, I'm outta here."

"Alright. I get it." Amy said. "Now, here's how it goes."

"Hold up." Shadow stopped her. "Have you ever been on an actual date before with anyone?"

"Well, once." She replied. "It was with Espio."

"That chameleon moron?" Shadow asked. "Why would go out with HIM?"

Cream, Cheese, and Vanilla were also surprised to hear that. Why exactly WOULD Amy go on a date with Espio. Was the chameleon wearing a Sonic costume or something?"

"Well, it's kind of complicated." Amy answered.

"Oh we'll get this whole practice thing, but this I just HAVE to hear. How could a girl obsessed with the faker go out with one of the dumbass detectives?" Shadow asked.

"Shadow!" Vanilla shouted. "We don't use that word in this house."

"Sorry." Shadow turned back to Amy. "So?"

Amy sighed. "I had just caught Sonic and he rejected me as usual. I was kind of down in the dumps and I ran into Espio. He and I talked and then the next thing I knew, I asked him out. I had no idea why. It's probably because he's the only one of them I can tolerate."

"Well that I can understand. Vector's an idiot and Charmy's annoying." Shadow said.

"Yes. Exactly." Amy agreed. "We had dinner and we actually talked. But we realized we were better off as friends. But I HAVE had dating experience. And Espio acted perfectly on ours."

"Really?" Vanilla said. "Well that was very nice of him."

"Yeah. He pulled out my chair for me, he paid for the dinner, if only Sonic would do that." Amy said. "Okay. Shadow, imagine Vanilla is your date. Converse with her. Find out each other's interests. Go."

Amy backed away and let the "date" commence. Shadow just stared at Vanilla not having a clue how to start a conversation.

"_Damn you, Rose! Why would you do this to me?"_

"Shadow, it's not very polite to stare." Vanilla stated.

"Sorry." Shadow replied. "So uuhh…who exactly is your kid's father?" That was the only thing he could think of that he actually wanted to know.

"Oh." Vanilla hadn't expected that question.

"Uh, Shadow, try something else." Amy said.

"No no. Amy, it's alright." Vanilla assured her. "Well Shadow, Cream's father was a rabbit like me and her. He was a very kind man. Hard working, loving, providing, a very caring man. It was a shame he passed."

"What happened?" Shadow asked.

"It was a car accident. It was raining and he was driving down a hill. He lost control and rammed into a tree." Vanilla began to tear up.

"I-I'm sorry I asked you that." Shadow said.

Vanilla wiped a tear away from her eye. "It's alright. You didn't know. You lost someone too, didn't you?"

Shadow looked away. How did she even know about Maria? Cream must have told her.

"That's something I don't really like to talk about." He muttered.

"I understand." Vanilla said.

"So…what make you happy?" Shadow asked.

That was something to ask on a date. Right?

"Oh. Well there you go." Vanilla said. "I'm a stay-at-home mother so I enjoy simply doing things at home and getting out of the house every now and then."

"Yeah? What do you do when you get out?" Shadow asked.

Amy, Cream, and Cheese smiled. So it was a truth. The ultimate lifeform was actually capable of having a nice civilized conversation with another being. But there was still the matter of whether he could keep going without screwing it up.

"Well, I like to go out to the health spa and for just some me time." Vanilla said. "What about you? What do you like to do?"

"I collect things." Shadow replied.

"Really? What kinds of things?" Vanilla asked.

"Mostly knives."

All the girls' faces dropped after that.

"Knives?"

"Oh yeah. Switch blades, butterfly knives, swords, you name it." Shadow pulled out a hunting knife. "This one here is my favorite. It swings like a dream, it hardly ever goes dull, and I won't lie. I killed a guy with this thing."

Shadow set the knife on the table and now Vanilla looked as if she had just witnessed a murder scene or something.

"You…killed someone with that?" she immediately regretted asking even before the answer was heard.

Amy covered Cream's ears.

"Oh yeah. Killed the crap out of him. It was this GUN soldier who was trying to kill ME first. What I did is I jumped on him and tackled him. Then took that there knife, and I stuck it into his stomach. He didn't die immediately, so I had a little fun. I twisted the knife inside his stomach so he would bleed internally too. Took him one full hour to die. Ha. Good times. Good times."

Amy slapped his forehead and Vanilla was mortified. Amy was trying to make THIS guy dating material. He just told a story of how he killed a man, and he was SMILING. She stood up.

"Well I think you've made some progress today, Shadow." She started for the door. "Amy could you please watch Cream for a bit?"

"Sure. But where are you going?" Amy asked.

"To see if I can find a full time therapist."

She walked out the door and Shadow examined his knife. He looked over at Amy.

"Huh. That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." He said.

Amy walked over to him. "Are you freaking kidding me? Shadow, do you have any idea what you just said?"

"I was just story telling." Shadow defended.

"Okay, Shadow, let's make a rule. On your date tonight, no talking about knives, and no stories about you killing anyone."

"Well then what am I supposed to talk about?" Shadow asked.

"Talk about your hobbies, your interests, what makes you happy." Amy said.

"I don't have any of those." Shadow muttered as he put the knife away.

"What about your past? You know. Where you come from."

Shadow glared at Amy and she immediately knew asking that was a mistake.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Okay. That was my bad. All I'm saying is, you're gonna have to tone down on the violent talk." Amy told him.

"Okay I get it. But now that she's gone, so am I." Shadow started to get up.

"Sit down. You're not done." Amy said flatly.

"But who can I practice with?"

His answer was the female hedgehog walking over to the chair Vanilla was in, and sitting in it.

"Hi. My name's Amy."

Shadow groaned. This was obviously going to take a very long time. And he was right. He was stuck there for four and a half straight hours getting taught about manners and how you act on a date. He was told constantly to keep his elbows off the table, to look directly at the girl, and many other things about manners he found mind numbing and pointless.

The only reason Amy let him go was because it was near time for him to get ready for the actual date. When she asked what he would wear, he said nothing. He was in no possession of any clothes aside from his shoes, gloves, anklets and bracelets. Amy was about to take him clothes shopping but the growl he gave indicated that was certainly not an option.

Shadow wasn't really looking forward to this. Although who really does look forward to a blind date? It's like opening up a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. You could get a nice normal piece of milk chocolate. It's delicious both inside and out. Or you could get something with nuts. It looks normal on the outside, but on the inside you realize that there's a lot more than what you bargained for. Now sometimes, that was a good thing. But Shadow never looked at the upside of anything.

Shadow and Amy were about head off, but the black one still had no idea who he was going out with. He didn't even get as much as a name. He asked Amy what it was, but she just told him that he would find out when he gets there. Once again, Shadow groaned at the answer. It was obvious this was going to be a very long night for him.

**Me: I'm so sorry that it took me so long to update. I promise I'll try to update faster.**

**Sonic: Good. Because seeing Shadow suffer on a blind date sounds like fun to read. **

**Shadow: Oh shut up faker.**

**Sonic: You're the faker, faker.**

**Shadow: You're the faker.**

**Sonic: No you're the faker.**

**Shadow: I'm the ultimate lifeform. I got that on you.**

**Sonic: You are so the faker. You were created artificially. I was born the all natural way. You're nothing but a test tube baby.**

**Shadow: That's it! Let's go!**

**Sonic: Alright then!**

**Me: Hold it! If you're gonna fight, than take it outside! **

**Sonic and Shadow: Fine.**

**(Sonic and Shadow leave)**

**Me: And you two better not go to the basement! That place is off limits for now!**

**Sonic and Shadow: FINE!**

**Tikal: Thanks for adding that.**

**Me: No problem. So right now I gotta go buy some books for college. I'll get back to this as soon as I can. Until then, peace bitches.**


	6. Date Number One

**Me: Hey bitches! **

**Shadow: Great you're back. Let's get going right now.**

**Me: Well okay uh…**

**Shadow: RIGHT NOW!**

**Me: …okay. Geez.**

**Tikal: Take it easy, Shadow.**

**Trevor: Yeah man. Lighten up.**

**Me: Trevor! Now you're here in Shadikal?**

**Trevor: Why not? I'd just like to meet some new people. Like Shadow and Tikal for instance.**

**Shadow: SHUT UP AND GET ON WITH THE FREAKIN STORY!**

**Me: Trev, you showed up at the right time. Take Shadow down to the basement.**

**All the girls in the story: The basement?**

**Amy: No way. You guys are spending way too much time down there in that basement.**

**Me: Look, Amy. When it comes to Shadow and Trevor, the basement is therapeutic for them. Trevor.**

**Trevor: Got it. Let's go, Shadow.**

**Shadow: Fine.**

**(Trevor takes Shadow out of the room)**

**Me: Alright then. Who's up for the disclaimer? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Tikal: Oh. Okay then. I'll do it. AK does now own me, Sonic, Shadow, or any other characters in this story. They are all owned by Sega.**

**Trevor: WOOHOO! I'm not, baby!**

**Me: You want me to tell them who owns YOU, Trev?**

**Trevor: SHUT UP, AK!**

**Me: Just take Shadow down to the freakin basement already. As for the rest of you. Please read this chapter and leave a review.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 6: Date Number One**

It was nearly seven PM and Shadow had just showed up at the restaurant where he was supposed to be meeting Amy's friend. And he was still sore at the girl for forcing him to do this. She knows he hates dating. She even knows he doesn't like being around other people in general. But yet she had forced him to go on a date. A BLIND date. A date where you have no idea where the girl or guy you get is a simple nice person, a nutbag, and there's even the slightest chance that that person might be the opposite gender of what they look like. Or they're both. Who really knows?

That's how Shadow always did things. Never focusing on the upside. Instead of considering this a chance to get out of his box and simply have some fun, he saw it as a method of torture with no way out. He could of course simply kill Amy. But then he'd just be numero uno on GUN's most wanted list. And he also feared that Amy would forever haunt his dreams if he ever fell asleep.

So Shadow swallowed his pride, and looked around. Amy had described her friend as a brown furred manx named Tiara. Shadow looked around and saw the only manx there. He walked up to her and he still wasn't smiling.

"Are you Rose's friend?" The ebony hedgehog asked.

Tiara looked at him and smiled. "You must be Shadow. The name's Tiara Boobowski."

"Shadow the Hedgehog." He sat down in the chair across from Tiara.

"Wow. She was right. You don't smile." Tiara pointed out.

Shadow waved the fact off and them the waiter came over. The two of them ordered a couple of drinks. Tiara got Dr. Pepper and Shadow ordered simple water. On the other hand, Shadow wanted so badly to order some booze, but he didn't want to make an ass of himself. Well, at least not yet. He at least had the courtesy to see if the date would go okay. Shadow had also failed to notice something. There were security cameras in nearly every corner of the establishment.

**(Mystic Ruins; Tails' House; 7:10 PM)**

In Tails' workshop, he had just finished hooking up nearly fifteen computer monitors together. One camera per screen was what he had going on. Sonic and Amy were also there of course because they had a bet.

"You know Amy, I find it strange that you would actually make a bet with Sonic for a date." Tails stated.

"I have no problem believing that." Sonic said.

"Why do you find it strange, Tails?" Amy asked.

"Because." Tails began. "don't you think going out with him would be even better when you know that he actually WANTS to go on a date with you?"

Tails had logic, but Amy had a counter.

"Of course. As soon as I win this bet, Sonic will take me on a date, and then he'll realize that he likes doing it." Amy said.

Tails sweatdropped and began to screw in the last nuts and bolts.

"First of all, whether you're going to win the bet is all depending on Shadow here." Sonic said. "You're chances are slim right there."

"Hey. Shadow might be a little rough around the edges, but…"

"Rouge around the edges?" Sonic stopped her. "Amy, Shadow's a freakin buzzsaw that slices any girl that comes near him in half."

"Nevertheless, I believe there's a chance that Shadow the Hedgehog is capable of falling in love." Amy came back.

"Alright. I'm done." Tails called and went over to the chair in front of all those monitors and turned them on with on button.

One by one, the screens flickered on and live colored footage from the security cameras began to stream nice and smooth. Different areas of the restaurant came into view. Table sections, bathrooms, Tails was even sly enough to sneak in a camera in the kitchen just in case Shadow tried to sneak out. But he needed Rouge's help to get one into the ladies room. After all the cameras were up and running, Tails took a seat at the desk and Sonic and Amy stood on both sides of him observing.

"Alright. We're go." Tails said. "Does Shadow even know that we're watching him?"

"No and I don't really plan on letting him know." Sonic stated.

"Alright shut up, you two. They're talking." Amy said.

The two males did as she said and listened to the conversation. So far Tiara was still there. So Shadow hadn't said anything wrong. He asked her how she knew Amy. Tiara replied that she was once in love with Sonic and dated him for a short time. When she met Amy, she tried to kill her with her hammer. She and Sonic broke up shortly after and decided they were much better off as just friends. That and Amy wouldn't plot her death every hour. The two girls became friends and stayed in touch. Shadow wasn't surprised. He's seen her go batcrap crazy at any girl who even looks at Sonic in any way that she doesn't like.

Amy thought that was good. Shadow asked a question that was common on a date. But what was Tiara going to ask HIM?

"So how do you know Sonic?" Tiara asked.

"Oh I tried to kill him." Shadow answered.

Tiara stared at him and Amy slapped his forehead. Sonic was on the verge of cracking up.

"You tried to kill him?" Tiara asked him.

"Well there's more to it than that." Shadow replied.

Shadow explained that he had just woken up from is hyper sleep in Prison Island nearly a year ago. At the time, Eggman influenced him that Sonic was the enemy. So he committed a few crimes and the government blamed Sonic for it all. Then the two found each other again and tried to kill each other. But they stopped and we all know what happened after that.

"But we're past that now." Shadow said. "Granted he and I aren't exactly "friends", but we're past it."

"Oh. Okay." Tiara shrugged. Apparently it wasn't as bad as she thought.

Amy smiled as she watched. "Okay. Great recovery, Shadow. Now keep on going."

Of course the black hedgehog couldn't hear her. The two on the date continued on doing what they were doing. The three watching them kept on watching. Sonic had lost his smile that he had earlier. This was going well. And he didn't want that. If this date actually went well, Sonic might lose the bet. But then he remembered a rule he set up himself. Shadow has to be the one to call back for a second date. And that was something that would probably never happen. If Tiara called Shadow, it wouldn't be effective and Amy would lose the bet. Sonic was assured right there that he would be fine.

"So what do you like to do?' Tiara asked.

"I spend most of my time alone and then the rest at the shooting range." Shadow answered.

Tiara's face dropped. So did Amy's and Tails. Sonic was on the verge of laughing again.

"The shooting range?" Tiara asked. "Are you a cop or something?"

"Oh hell no. I hate the fuzz." Shadow pointed out. "I just REALLY love guns."

Tiara's eyes widened at the words. But she had to dig deeper.

"Just how much to you love guns exactly?" she asked.

"Guns are my favorite class of weapons." Shadow said with a smile.

"Oh no." Amy slapped her forehead.

"Sidearms are good for the up close and personal shot. I've made plenty of those in my life. Machine guns are good for those kinds of shots when you know the guy's dead already, but you just don't want to stop. And then of course there's my favorite gun."

Sonic was rolling on the ground clutching his stomach in laughter while Amy was steadily pounding her head against the wall.

Tiara was afraid to ask, but unfortunately, it didn't stop her from doing it.

"You…you have a favorite gun?" she asked.

"Yeah." Shadow reached behind his back and pulled out an AK-47 with a special black and red paint job just for him. There were also some torn shreds of old clothes wrapped around some parts of it.

"I named this baby Shades. Those torn scarves are from the clothes of this alien warlord who I killed not too long ago. Those shreds of clothes were all I found. But who cares about him? He's in hell now."

Tiara couldn't believe this was happening. She was on a date with a guy who she thought was a nice normal shmoe. And now here he is talking about guns and killing aliens. And there was a huge AK-47 right in front of her. She was terrified of guns. And this one was BIG. And he NAMED it. What was wrong with this guy? Thinking there was only one option, she got up.

"I need to use the ladies room." Tiara walked off and Shadow didn't say anything as he put "Shades" away.

Tails and Amy kept watching her as she went to the bathroom. Sonic on the other hand was rolling on the floor and laughing harder than he ever had before in his life.

Amy and Tails watched Tiara walk into the restroom. And then they noticed that she had her purse with her. Checking to see if there was anyone around, she found that she was the only one occupant of the bathroom. Then she eyed the window. She was small enough to fit through it. She threw her purse and high heeled shoes out the window, and then she followed them out the same window.

Amy and Tails dropped their jaws. They were shocked that she did that even though they probably shouldn't really be surprised at all something like that happened.

"She jumped out the window." Tails said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."Amy facepalmed herself.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA! Oh ho! Ha! Oh Amy! Keep sending on those dates! That was just too damn funny! Did you see Tiara's face? I mean she was like…pppbbbtttt! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Saying Sonic thought it was funny would be a bit of an understatement. When Tails and Amy looked back at the screen to check on Shadow, they saw that he was gone. He was nowhere on any of the monitors.

"I guess he Chaos Controlled himself away." Tails said.

"I told him! No talking about weapons!" Amy shouted.

"Are you sure you worded it like that?" Tails asked.

Amy facepalmed again upon realizing that she indeed hadn't.

"No. I only told him not to talk about knives. I didn't say anything about guns." Amy admitted.

"Well you might wanna tell him that if you ever want to win this thing." Tails pointed out.

Amy took in a few deep breaths and relaxed herself. Something she rarely does.

"You know what? It's alright. I have two months and this was only the first date. I have two months to work with Shadow and make him the most loveable hunk in all of Mobius. It shouldn't be that hard."

Sonic began to laugh even harder as he heard Amy talk about how she was so determined to help Shadow. Amy gave humph and brought out her hammer to raise above her head. When Sonic saw that, he finally stopped laughing and caught his breath. Amy was very close to bringing it down on him. But the blue hedgehog apologized and stood back up.

Tails wasn't really sure what to do with the cameras he had installed inside the restaurant. Amy told him to just leave them there. Every foreseeable date that Shadow would have was going to be held in that exact same restaurant.

Amy replayed the events of what she just saw over and over in her head. There just had to be SOME way to make him tone down on the violence. Who brings a gun like that out on the first date? Amy was basically back to square one again. And she had just wasted a precious day in the two month time-span she had. But Amy was very scared that she might lose this bet. Then she would never be able to go out with Sonic, and she would have to leave him alone. Two months wasn't going to be enough time to make this happen.

But then Amy thought of something else. Maybe it wasn't Shadow. Maybe she just picked out the wrong girl for him. She walked on home and looked through an address book she had filled with the many phone numbers of her friends.

Which girl would be perfect for an ageless alien hybrid hedgehog with a love for weapons and a slight hatred for humanity?

**Me: There we go. Sixth chapter all finished up.**

**Sonic: Shame Shadow wasn't here to read it.**

**Tails: Are he and Trevor STILL down in the basement?**

**Me: Silver, go look for Trevor and Shadow.**

**(Silver leaves and come back up thirty seconds later)**

**Silver: They're down there. But Takamon, your Blaze, GK, Yuriko, and Hikaru are down there too.**

**Me: What the hell are all my original characters doing down in the basement? **

**Rouge: What do you think they're doing, hon?**

**Me: Oh for God's sake. **

**(I get up and close the door behind me)**

**Well, I might as well join them for a bit until Sonic comes down there and stops us. I'll be back with chapter seven soon. Until then, peace bitches.**


	7. Lucky 24

**Me: Hey Bitches! I return again with chapter seven!**

**Amy: Sweet. **

**Me: And another announcement, I have officially given up the activities of my basement for a while.**

**Shadow: No! You can't give up the basement, AK!**

**Tikal: Actually, Shadow, I think it's probably for the best.**

**Sonic: I think so too. After Vector showed me that Polaroid of what me and Amy did, I think it's best that I lay off for a bit.**

**Amy: What? Are…are you sure? You don't want to have one tiny hit?**

**Sonic: Nice try, Amy.**

**Cream: That's not nice to drug him, Amy.**

**Amy: Are you kidding me? I can't believe I never thought of that before.**

**Rouge: Knuckles? You wanna go down to the basement?**

**Knuckles: No. I'm taking a break too. Getting high doesn't solve any problems.**

**Shadow: But you have to admit. It feels pretty damn good.**

**Knuckles: Yeah. Sonic and Silver agree. Right?**

**Sonic and Silver: Oh yeah.**

**Me: Ok. Enough about my basement. Let's get started. Who's doing the disclaimer? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Cream: I think it's your turn, Mr. Shadow.**

**Shadow: Hmph…fine. AK doesn't own me, Tikal, or any other furry walking talking animals here. We're owned by SEGA.**

**Me: So please enjoy chapter seven and remember to review.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 7: Lucky 24**

One month had passed since Sonic and Amy made their bet. And so far for Amy, it wasn't going too well. She had set Shadow up with nearly every friend she had that was female. Mina Mongoose, Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot, and yet, Shadow didn't seem interested in any of them. Amy had no idea what to do. Sonic on the other hand was getting his kicks off of watching Shadow screw up. Amy had gone through 23 friends. 23 dates in 30 days and none of them worked out. There was only one girl who wanted to see him again, but if she called him, Amy would lose the bet. So Amy told her that some other guy said she was cute and she went for it.

**(Cream's house; 2:30 PM)**

Amy was sitting on Cream's couch chugging down a cup of tea with her best friend while also trying to think.

"I take it the whole Shadow dating thing isn't going so well." Cream assumed.

"Gee. Ya think?" Amy said. "I just don't get it. Shadow's not talking about weapons anymore, and I've taught him everything I know about manners. What am I doing wrong?"

"Maybe you should cut your losses and give up." Cream suggested.

"I can't do that. Me and Sonic have a bet and if I lose, another chance like this might never come around again." Amy stated. "Listen to me. I feel like I'm in therapy. By the way, how's your mom doing?"

Cream frowned. "She's doing better. But when we went shopping the other day, we happened to walk by apart of the store where they sell pocket knives and such. She ran away screaming."

"Ouch." Amy should have told Shadow the rules before practice. "Come on Cream. Think. How can I get Shadow to fall in love?"

"Maybe you're just choosing the wrong girls for him." Cream said. "Try someone with whom he doesn't mind being around."

"But that's just it." Amy argued. "Shadow hates everyone."

"There has to be SOMEONE." Cream suggested. "Maybe someone who's not from around here."

"You're on the right track, Cream. But who?"

The hedgehog, the rabbit, and the tiny chao started to think. Who is right for this guy? The only one he was ever close to was Maria. And we all know what happened there. Rouge was already with Knuckles and Shadow could barely stand HER. And she was his closest friend. Who else was there? Vanilla was out of the question.

"Wait." Cream said. "What about that new girl that came here from the Master Emerald that I've never met?"

Amy's eyes shot wide open. She couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. Shadow seemed to be calm around her in the short time he was. And Tikal could use the experience of dating.

"Tikal would be perfect." Amy said. "But she's staying with Knuckles and Rouge. So you and I have to convince them to sign off on it."

"Sign what?" Cream didn't know what the expression meant.

"It means we have to convince Knuckles and Rouge to let Tikal go on a date with Shadow." Amy explained.

"Oh. But how are we going to get to Angel Island?" Cream asked.

"You can fly. Fly us there." Amy said.

"I can't fly that high up for that long." Cream told her. "Why don't we just ask Tails to fly us there in the Tornado?"

"Oh. Good idea." Amy got up.

The three of them walked out of the house and headed over to Tails' house. He agreed to fly them to the island and he did so in a matter of ten minutes. When he landed, Amy told him to stay in the plane. Cream, Cheese, and Amy got out and walked up to Knuckle's door to knock. He answered it a few seconds later.

"Oh. Hey there." Knuckles greeted them.

"Hi, Knuckles. Can we come in? We want to ask you guys something." Amy said.

Knuckles nodded and stepped out of the way to let the girls in. As she walked in, Cream saw a tan echidna lying on the couch. She figured that was Tikal. Which it was. She and Cheese went over to her.

"Hi there." Cream said to her.

Tikal looked over at her and smiled. "Hello."

"My name is Cream." Cheese seemed very happy to see the echidna and landed on her stomach.

"Chao chao! Chao chao chao!"

Tikal smiled wide. If there was one thing she loved, it was the Chao.

"Nice to meet you, Cheese. I'm Tikal." She said.

"Chao!"

"You can understand him?" Cream had never met anyone else who could speak Chao language.

"Yes. Back where I'm from I spent most of my free time with the many Chao herds in my village." Tikal told her.

"That's really cool." Amy said.

Rouge came downstairs and saw the girls.

"Hey. What's going on down here?" the bat asked.

"I don't know. That said they wanted to ask us something." Knuckles told his girlfriend.

They all gathered around in the living room.

"So what's up?" Rouge asked.

"This question is for Tikal." Amy said. "Tikal, do you know what dating is?"

Rouge and Knuckles looked at each other and then at Tikal.

"I don't know what that is. Dating you called it?" she asked.

"It's simple. Dating is when you meet with someone, presumably one of the opposite gender, and just get to know them a lot better." Amy said.

"It's how most people today fall in love." Cream added.

Tikal tilted her head.

"People here…fall in love with whoever they want to?" she asked.

"Yeah." Amy answered. "Why do you ask like that?"

"Back in my village, all marriages were arranged. We didn't have a choice." Tikal replied.

"How awful." Cream said.

"Well that's great. Now you're living here in this world. Which means we can introduce you to dating." Amy said.

"Amy. A word." Rouge got up and led Amy away to another room.

"What?" Amy asked.

"Don't play dumb with me. Sonic gave me a heads up about this little bet you've got going on here. Shame on you. Trying to set her up with Shadow? Are you crazy?"

"What's the harm? You said yourself that Shadow didn't mind being around her."

"Maybe. But forcing her on a date with someone she hardly knows isn't right." Rouge stated.

Amy had to think again. She had to convince her to let her do this.

"Rouge look. I know what I'm asking for here might be a bit over the line, but I'm not just doing this for a date with Sonic. I'm trying to help Shadow. I'm trying to make him enjoy life. But he's gone through twenty three of my friends. I think he might have a chance with Tikal. And Tikal needs this too. You said yourself that she needs to get out there and experience this world. Well dating is something people do. If you don't think it's right, why don't let Tikal decide for herself?"

Rouge sighed. She didn't want to go through with this in fear that Shadow might bite off Tikal's head if she digs to deep. But Amy was right. Tikal needs to learn how to live on her own. And dating was included in that package. She sighed again.

"Alright. We'll let her decide." Rouge said.

Amy started to walk back into the room but Rouge stopped her.

"BUT…if she says yes to this, one date is all you get. Just one. If it doesn't work out, then that's it."

Amy nodded understanding. The two girls sat back down where they were before.

"So Tikal…would you like to go on a date tonight?" the pink hedgehog asked.

"Well…who would I be going with?" Tikal asked back.

"You remember Shadow. Don't you?" Amy asked.

Tikal opened up her eyes all the way when she heard the name. It had been a month or so since she had seen him. And it wasn't all that bad when she was around him.

"Okay. I'll do it." Tikal agreed to it. "It might be fun."

"Great." Amy and Cream got up to leave. "I'll have Tails pick you up in his plane when it's time. Say around 5:30?"

"Alright." Tikal agreed again.

"Great. See you then." Amy called.

Amy, Cream, and Cheese left. But then Tikal remembered one thing. She had no idea what to do on a date. Rouge and Knuckles took care of that problem. They took Tikal aside and taught her about what to do on a simple dinner date. Then Rouge fished through her closet and found one of her old dresses that Tikal could wear. It was a short black dress with spaghetti straps. Tikal had never worn high heels before. But she got used to them. She still tripped a few times but she got used to them.

When it was time, Amy went to find Shadow who was entirely fed up with the whole dating thing. But Amy said it would be the last one. And Shadow agreed to do it with a growl. He and Amy stood in front of the restaurant at 5:30 PM.

"I can't believe I agreed to this." Shadow said.

"Look. I promise you, after this final date, I'll leave you alone forever." Amy assured him.

Shadow groaned. "Alright fine. Who is it this time?"

"I'll just say this. You've met her before."

With that, Amy walked off and headed for Tails house where he and Sonic were waiting for her. Shadow shrugged and walked inside looking around for who he was chained to tonight. But then his eyes locked onto an echidna he remembered from a month ago. It was Tikal in a dress. Shadow had no idea why Amy would set the two of them up, but he considered that this was just another failed attempt that he had to go through with. But still, there was something about her that made him feel…different. He walked up to her.

"Hey." He said.

Tikal smiled when she saw him.

"Hey. Long time no see."

"Yeah…uh…Tikal. Right?" Shadow asked.

"Yes. I remember you, Shadow." Tikal replied.

"Really? That's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that who wasn't trying to kill me." Shadow said.

"W-what?" Tikal stuttered.

Shadow realized what he had just said.

"Uh…don't worry about that. Forget I said anything." Shadow said.

Tikal shrugged. It was probably nothing. Shadow took his seat across from her and looked at her.

"So how do you like it here so far?" Shadow asked.

"Oh. I love it here. Everyone is so nice and I've really learned a lot about the culture here. But tell me something. How come if there are restaurants like this one in which you buy food, why are there people with carts on the streets selling food too?" Tikal explained.

"Oh those guys? Those guys are called vendors. They stand out there all day everyday selling cheaper food for those who can't afford the more expensive stuff like the food here." Shadow told her.

"I've heard about that. Rouge said it was called, a job. Don't get it all too well." Tikal said.

"It's like this. Today in this world, people have to make money in order to acquire some of the things they need to get by. Like food and homes. Basically what you do is you work for this one guy who pays you to do something." Shadow said.

"Oh like Rouge. She told me she works for the President as a spy." Tikal said.

"Yep. And she's good at it." Shadow said.

"What about you? Do you have a job?" Tikal asked.

"Nope." Shadow said flatly. "Although I can't say I haven't been offered one."

"Really? As what?" Tikal inquired.

"At GUN where Rouge works. The commander offered me a job there after this incident a few months ago. But I turned him down." Shadow said.

"I don't understand. Why?" Tikal was asking all the questions so far.

Shadow paused for a few seconds before he gave his answer.

"I really don't like to talk about that."

Tikal nodded. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to."

Shadow actually gave the girl a tiny smile. "Thank you."

They continued conversing and while they were talking, both of them were also thinking. Shadow was surprised at himself. He was actually talking to a girl, and she wasn't running away or throwing up into her soup like that one pink echidna, Julie-Su did. But that was probably due to food poisoning or the flu or some other thing like that. He didn't care. He was the Ultimate Lifeform. He couldn't get sick even if he tried to.

He was wondering why THIS girl out of all of them was so different. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was just something about her that made her appealing to the dark hedgehog. Even during that brief interval of time she introduced herself to him in the park, he felt something strange. That's why he dashed away from her. But still, what was it about her that made her different? Was it her peaceful mind? Her eyes? Her voice? He didn't know.

Tikal was also thinking about Shadow. Why exactly does he have to be so mysterious? In all the time she had been close to him, all she had learned was he could do some fancy tricks with a Chaos Emerald, and that he likes to be alone. Other than that, he didn't really talk about himself. Whenever he came close to though, it was almost as if he was ashamed of it because he quickly changed the subject to something else. But Tikal didn't mind. All that mattered to her was that she and Shadow both have a good time together.

Back in Mystic Ruins, Tails, Amy, and Sonic were all observing the date and all three of them were surprised on how good it was going.

"I can't believe it." Tails said. "It's been over an hour, and Tikal is still there smiling."

"What did I tell you?" Amy gloated. "I told you I can make Shadow like someone."

"Don't get too cocky, Amy." Sonic stopped her. "For all we know, Shadow could still screw this up at any given moment."

And of course that is what Sonic was hoping for so he could come out of this bet victorious. And then he would have a whole month free of Amy's sleeper-hold hugs. The three looked back to the screen and listened to them talk as their food came. Tikal simply ordered a salad while Shadow didn't order anything. He was low on money as it is, and he scared one girl away last week when he devoured a bigass 50 oz steak in less than two minutes. That steak cost him fifty five bucks. He had sixty on him tonight. No big spending.

"So…" Shadow tried to strike up conversation again. "how often have you been off of the island for the past month?"

"Actually, only once or twice. Rouge took me shopping for some clothes of my own."

"You went shopping with Rouge? I'm so sorry." Shadow was serious too.

"Why are you sorry?" Tikal asked.

"Because I know Rouge. And there are times in which she can be extremely annoying." Shadow said. "She once dragged me to the mall to help her choose out clothes for a date with Knuckles. It was painful for me. To this day I have no clue how she even got me there in the first place."

Tikal was giggling at Shadow.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Tikal covered her mouth. "Oh it's nothing. You just sound so silly. So you went shopping. It could have been worse. You could have actually been her date."

Tikal giggled again and Shadow noticed something else about her. She had a cute smile. A VERY cute smile.

"You know I have to admit, this place is very nice. But Angel Island has it beat out in views." Tikal said.

Shadow looked at her funny. "Views?"

"Yes. You know. Like looking down on the ocean. That sight is just incredible from up in the air." Tikal stated.

"But have you ever seen the ocean from down here?" Shadow asked.

Tikal shook her head no and Shadow thought of an idea. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

"Check please!"

The waiter came over and brought Shadow the check. It was fifty three dollars. He took out sixty bucks in cash and left it all there. Then he got up and walked over to his date.

"So the closest you've ever come to the ocean is half a mile above it in the sky?" Shadow asked.

"Yes." Tikal answered no sure where he was going with this.

Shadow offered her his hand. Nervous, Tikal reached out and took it as he helped her stand up. Then he brought out his green Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control!"

The green glow of the emerald enveloped the two of them and then they vanished from sight. They were also gone from the cameras that Tails had set up there.

"Where did they go?" Tails wondered.

"Maybe he took her home." Sonic suggested.

"Oh. That hedgehog. Why couldn't he just stay there?" Amy complained.

While the three of them kept on wondering, something else happened.

Shadow and Tikal re-appeared somewhere Tikal did not recognize. She looked down. She had never seen a place covered in sand.

"Shadow where are we?" she asked.

Shadow smirked at her. "This place is called the beach." He said. "Now turn around and tell me that isn't a view."

Confused, she turned around and gasped at the sight. She was thirty feet away from the water of the ocean. And just above the horizon, the sun was setting, creating a fantastic display of colors among the clouds in the sky. The pinks, the oranges, the yellows, it was almost as if the sky was set on fire. A very beautiful fire. Shadow turned around with her.

"Well? Who's got the better view now?" he asked.

"Wow." Tikal ran up to the edge of the water. "I've never been this close to the water before."

"Yeah. I figured as much." Shadow said as he walked up next to her.

"Shadow…what does it feel like?" she asked. "What is it like to feel the water on your bare feet?"

Shadow smirked and looked down at her feet.

"Well why don't you see for yourself?"

He pointed to the huge body of water that was right in front of them. Tikal smiled at him and then took off her high heels, handed them to Shadow, and let her orange bare feet touch the sand. Then she walked over and dipped her toe in. It was a bit cold, but she didn't mind. She walked into the water letting her feet and ankles get soaked by the water of the sea. She had never felt like this before. A tiny wave crashed at her ankles and she laughed as it kind of tickled.

Shadow noticed her smile again, but then he began to wonder again. Why was he even doing this? Why was this girl so freakin different than the others he had already met? Her smile. Was it her smile? It couldn't be. Although it was extremely cute, that couldn't be the reason. It was almost as if…he had met her long ago.

The peach echidna walked out of the water and didn't put her shoes back on.

"I should probably get you back to Angel Island." Shadow said.

Tikal nodded but frowned. She was having fun. She didn't want it to be over already. Shadow took her hand and then they Chaos Controlled right in front of Knuckles' front door.

"Look." Shadow looked into Tikal's eyes. "I really had a nice time with you tonight."

Tikal smiled. "I had a nice time too."

Thinking that was it, Tikal walked up to Knuckles door, opened it up, and walked inside. Shadow was about to walk away, but Rouge same out.

"So what did you two do?" she asked.

"We just had dinner and some other things." Shadow said. "Ask her."

"Really? What 'other things'?" the bat asked.

"Like I said. Ask her."

"Oh I intend to."

Rouge went back inside and closed to door. Shadow took out his emerald and prepared to leave. But before he did, he saw Tikal in the window. As the emerald started to glow, he looked at her, and he smiled. Before he vanished into thin air, he actually looked straight a girl, and smiled.

**Tikal: Oh AK.**

**Me: I know. It was my first shot at a full on Shadikal chapter. Be gentle. **

**Sonic: Be gentle? AK I liked it.**

**Me: You're kidding.**

**Shadow: Are you ever going to make me a badass in this story.**

**Me: And here it comes. I'm ending this chapter right now. I'll have chapter eight up soon. Until then, peace bitches.**

**And don't forget to review!**


	8. Still Wondering

**Me: Hay bitches! I'm back again. **

**Shadow: Why haven't you updated on anything else? Usually you rotate around with your stories.**

**Me: Well, I'm working on four stories right now. And I realized that I really need to prioritize myself. I'll work on them in the background. But I really need to get one of them completed so I can have less on my plate. This one I'm most interested in right now. So boom. Here I am.**

**Tikal: Not a bad idea. But what about your fans waiting for your other stories?**

**Me: Those guys can wait. But I really want to focus on this one right now. So what do you guys say we get started on this crappie?**

**Cream: I say YAY!**

**Cheese: CHAO CHAO!**

**Me: Alright then. Who's doin the disclaimer? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Knuckles: Pass.**

**Rouge: Do it.**

**Knuckles: No.**

**Rouge: Do it.**

**Knuckles: No.**

**Rouge: Fine. We're through.**

**Knuckles: Oh you suck. AK doesn't own any characters from the Sonic games or anything else. There. Now ya happy.**

**Rouge: Well I'm not mad.**

**Knuckles: Good enough for me.**

**Me: Enjoy chapter eight and remember to review.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 8: Still Wondering**

**(Mobian Mountain Range; 11:30 AM)**

The sun was almost directly overhead. And Shadow was looking out beyond the range with that scowl on his face. But this scowl wasn't one of anger or hate. Shadow was thinking. It was only yesterday since he had gone on that date with Tikal and he was still confused as to why she was different than all the rest. He couldn't point it out, but he enjoyed her presence. And that was something he NEVER did. With ANYONE. He was once again trying to think up reasons of why his mind was doing this to him.

What was it? For every event that has ever happened in this world, there has always been a reason behind. Hell, even Eggman has a reason to attack the innocent. Not a good one but it's still a reason nonetheless. Shadow had to think about it more. But he still had no luck in finding one.

But what could help him discover the reason? He had no idea. But then he got one.

"_It was me being around her that made me feel like this. That means there's only one solution. I have to see her again."_

Shadow couldn't believe he was thinking this himself. Then he began to speak out loud.

"If it means I'll find out why I feel like this about her, than I have to keep seeing her until that happens. Which means I'll have to take her on…dare I say it…more dates. And it looks like I'm gonna have to find a place she might like."

Shadow formulated a plan for a second date. Smirking, he thought of an idea and turned on his rocket soled shoes and skated down the mountain to a familiar house.

Two minutes later, he arrived in front of Cream's house. He knocked on the door and the little bunny answered it.

"Oh. Hi there, Mr. Shadow." The polite bunny greeted him.

"Shadow?" Amy's voice was heard inside the house and then she came into the doorway from the inside. She was there visiting. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping to ask for a favor." Shadow replied.

"A favor?" Amy had no idea what kind of favor the dark hedgehog would even ask for.

"May I come in?" he asked.

"Sure. But my mom could be home at any time and after that practice date you had with her, I think it would be best if she didn't see you." Cream told him.

"Understandable." Shadow walked in and took a seat in a chair.

Amy and Cream sat down on a couch across from him. Cheese flew and landed in Cream's arms.

"So what do you need Shadow?" Amy asked.

"I need to know what kind of food you take on a picnic." Shadow answered.

Cream, Amy, and Cheese looked at one another with even more puzzled looks. Shadow on a picnic?

"Um…why do you want to know that, Shadow?" the pink hedgehog asked.

"Because I plan to go on one later today and I would like to be prepared." The ebony hedgehog replied.

"Really? Who with? Because you can't go on a picnic yourself. I of all people know that." Amy said.

Shadow looked away and closed his eyes. Amy tried to read his expression. He said he wanted to know what food would be good for a picnic. But when asked if he would be accompanied by anyone, he looks away. Why?

Amy gasped as she finally figured out the puzzle.

"Oh my gosh! It's a date! Isn't it?" Amy was so sure.

Shadow nodded confirming Amy's theory and she immediately dashed to right in front of him.

"Alright. Let's hear it. Who is it?" she asked.

Shadow groaned. He was hoping he wouldn't be interrogated like this.

"It's really none of your concern." Shadow was hoping that would end it.

But it didn't.

"Shadow, females love details. I'm a female and I want details. Tell me who you're asking out today or I won't help you."

Once again, the ebony hedgehog groaned and rubbed his temple.

"I'm going to ask Tikal to accompany me. There. Now ya happy?"

Amy smiled so wide her mouth had to open up. Cream was also smiling because she was happy for Shadow. He actually wanted to see her again.

"Okay. Cream and I will make the food for you. But you will tell us everything about this date while we do. Cream, to the kitchen!"

Amy grabbed Shadow's arm and dragged him into the kitchen where she found and apron for herself. She and Cream started to make some food and Cheese found a basket to put it all in. All the while, Shadow told the girls everything about the date he had planned. Amy thought it was so romantic to which Shadow gave his trademark, "Hmph". Cream found a large blanket and put it in the basket as well.

The food Amy and Cream prepared seemed like the perfect picnic basket recipe. They had assorted fruits, trail mix, grilled buttered French bread, and various sandwiches. For beverage needs, they had put some orange juice in a thermos and put some Styrofoam cups in there too. Shadow thanked the girls, picked up the basket, and vanished by Chaos Control to Angel Island. Amy on the other hand, she had to get to Tails place and tell him the news. There was no way Sonic would believe this.

Shadow arrived on the island a few meters in front of the shrine to the Master Emerald. He first walked up the steps of the shrine to see if Knuckles was there. He wasn't. The hedgehog simply teleported down to the front door of the house and rose his hand up to knock. But then he pulled back.

"_What am I doing? I'm here with a basket of food in my hand looking like an idiot, coming here to ask a girl I hardly know anything about on a date."_

He was starting to consider forgetting all about it and warping away, but then he remembered his thoughts from before.

"_Come on, Shadow. You HAVE to find out what's causing this strange feeling. And you know damn well the only way to do that is to spend more time with her."_

Shadow stood up tall, took a deep breath, wiped his forehead of any sweat, and then knocked on the door. Rouge was the one who answered the door.

"Shadow? What are you doing here?" she inquired.

"It's pretty complicated." Shadow replied.

Rouge looked up and down his body. "I can agree with that. You seem tenser than I've ever seen you, your scowl is flat, and you have a picnic basket. One can't help but wonder."

"Is Tikal here?"

Rouge almost gasped when she heard that.

"You want to see Tikal?"

"Did I stutter?"

"No Shadow. What you said came out perfectly clear. I just wanted to make sure you knew that."

"I'm fine, batgirl. Just get me Tikal."

Rouge smirked at him before walking away. Twenty seconds later, the apricot echidna walked up to the hedgehog surprised to see him.

"Hello there, Shadow." She greeted.

"Yeah…hi." Shadow said back. "Listen I was just wondering…I had a nice time with you last night and I was hoping that you and I could do it again."

Tikal smiled at the request.

"Of course I would. When do you want to do it?'' she asked.

"I was kind of hoping right now." Shadow replied.

"Oh." She wasn't expecting him to make it so soon. "Okay. Just give me a minute."

"Of course."

Tikal smiled at him and then went back inside to go get ready. Shadow noticed her smile again. It looked so familiar to him. But why? The question rose up once again. Why was this girl making him think all these things? Why was she so familiar? How could someone be familiar when you've never even met that person before?

When she came back out, he forced himself to stop thinking. Knuckles and Rouge watched the two of them walk away from the house from the window.

"So where are we going?" Tikal asked.

"Have you ever heard of a picnic?" Shadow asked back.

"Yes. I've been on a couple with the chao back in my home." She replied.

"Good. There's this place I go to most of the time to think. I want to show it to you. Now stop here."

Shadow and Tikal both stood in place and the hedgehog once again brought out his green Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control!"

The two of them vanished in the green light of the emerald and re-appeared at a place Shadow knew very well, and a place that Tikal laid eyes on for the first time.

Shadow had warped them to the grassy edge of a high cliff that overlooked the ocean. The sun was making the water sparkle like a well cut diamond. Behind them there was a lone tree with a bush full of leaves that provided the perfect amount of shade. Tikal looked down the cliff to see the waves crash and splash against the rocky wall of the cliff.

"Shadow, it's beautiful." She said. "Do you know of a lot of places like this?"

"Yes." He replied quietly. "But I've never shown them to anyone else."

Tikal turned around to face him. "Why not?"

"Because I've never been as friendly to other people as I've to you."

Tikal giggled. "Rouge told me the same thing."

Shadow stared at her. "Did she say anything else about me?"

Her face dropped a little. "No. Why do you ask?"

Relived, Shadow put the basket down at the trunk of the tree.

"No reason. Just wanted to make sure she didn't say anything bad about me."

"Why would anyone say anything bad about you?"

Shadow realized right there that she had no idea who he really was or what he had done in his past. And sooner or later, he would have to tell her. He preferred later. MUCH later.

"Just forget about it."

Shadow lied out the blanket on the grass and he sat down on it. Tikal followed his actions and helped him sort out the food. He said that she should thank Amy and Cream for making the food and she said that she would. The two of them started to eat and chat again.

Meanwhile, miles above the surface in outer space, a satellite that was orbiting the planet was right above them. A camera lens was telescoping down and the one controlling that was none other than Tails. He had Amy and Sonic behind him watching his monitor. And on that monitor was a zoomed in view of Shadow and Tikal sitting on the blanket eating and talking.

"I still can't believe you made me hack into GUN's satellite network just so you could spy on Shadow and Tikal on a picnic." Tails was obviously not thrilled.

"Bro, we had no other way to watch them." Sonic told him.

"Can't you just hide behind the trees like normal people?" Tails asked.

"No way. Shadow has good hearing. He'll know we're there before we even get there." Amy said.

"Fine. But if I end up getting caught and going to jail, I'm taking you two with me." Tails warned them.

"Aw come on buddy. They wouldn't do that." Sonic assured him.

"Are you freakin kidding me?" Once again, Tails was not happy. "Sonic, hacking into the government's system in any agency or branch is a federal crime. You're forcing me to break the law right now. If I get caught, I could do twenty years in prison. And I promise you, you two will be my cell mates."

Sonic and Amy felt a small side of guilt, but it was more of s surprising feeling to hear Tails actually threaten someone. But they could understand why. He didn't want to go to prison. He was only eight years old.

"So this is what's going to happen." Tails wasn't finished. "After this whole spying thing s over for today, I'm out."

Amy and Sonic looked at him.

"What do you mean, 'out'?" The pink one asked.

"I mean, OUT." Tails replied. "I'm not going to jail over a stupid bet you two made, and I'm not invading Shadow's privacy anymore."

"But how are we going to watch them?" Sonic asked.

"It's not my problem." Tails got up from his chair to leave. "Whatever you have planned, count me out."

Tails started to walk away but Amy called after him.

"Wait! I'll make you a deal!"

Tails froze in his place and turned around.

"What kind of deal?"

"Anything. You name it." Amy replied.

Tails began to think. Anything he wanted. He knew they would do it too. He had them in a position that favored him. They needed him to do something they had no knowledge of. And they had no choice but to cooperate with whatever he said.

"Fine. I'll finish up this surveillance thing for this date. But after this, no more hacking." Tails said. "And as for what I want, I want a thousand dollars."

Sonic nearly fainted. "A thousand dollars? Why?"

"I need to pay for some new parts for the Tornado and I'm strapped for cash. Either you front me the money within one week, or I'm out of this whole thing."

Sonic and Amy didn't know what to do. They had no money at all. But they had to meet the demand, or they were screwed.

"Fine. We'll get you the money. Just get back in the chair." Sonic said.

Tails nodded and walked back to the chair. Shadow and Tikal were still eating and talking to one another. Tikal was looking at Shadow's hands.

"If I may ask you, why do you wear those rings on your wrists?" she asked.

Shadow examined his wrists and the two golden rings he had on them. Then he took them off and placed them down right in front of the girl. She picked them up and looked at them.

"They're called inhibitor rings. They allow me to limit how much power I use whenever I'm in a fight with Eggman." Shadow explained. "If I take them off, I release all my energy in one big burst and then I'm completely worn out. It's my only weakness."

Tikal was interested to learn about that. Such power held inside such little objects.

"They're beautiful." She handed them back to Shadow and he put them back on. "You know, I've wondered a lot of things about you ever since I first met you, Shadow. And one can't help but wonder what your past was like."

Shadow looked at her with narrowed eyes. "That's something I'm not comfortable talking about."

Even though she had said to him before that she was okay with not knowing, she still was very curious to know. So she kept on asking.

"Shadow, I haven't had the best past either. I promise, I won't judge you in any way or tell anyone. You can trust me."

"I'm…I'm not sure."

Shadow as about to tell her to drop it, but then he felt something on the top of his hand. It was Tikal's hand.

"Please, Shadow. I'm your friend. I just want to know more about you."

Shadow sighed deeply. Why was she doing this? Why was he making him do these things?

"You promise you won't think any differently of me?"

"Of course."

He sighed again and sat up straight. "Alright. I'll tell you everything."

**Shadow: Hey! No! You can't end it here!**

**Me: Well I think I can.**

**Shadow: AK, you suck.**

**Tails: Seriously. You couldn't go on just a bit longer?**

**Me: The story of the past will be the next chapter. So we all can wait.**

**How will Tikal react to hearing the true origin of Shadow the Hedgehog, and what he's done in the past? Find out in the next chapter. Until then, peace bitches.**


	9. 50 Years Ago

**Me: Hey bitches! AK here with a chapter that is sure to be interesting.**

**Amy: Well let's see. Shadow is going to disclose EVERYTHING about his past to Tikal. Oh I can't wait to see this.**

**Shadow: Hop to it, AK! I want to know what's going to happen! NOW!**

**Tikal: Okay okay okay. Shadow, relax. AK will do a good job. If he doesn't I'll let you break his leg.**

**Shadow: I want his arm.**

**Tikal: Go for the leg. If you break his arms he won't be able to type.**

**Shadow: Good point.**

**Vector: Get the disclaimer done and get this thing goin, AK!**

**Me: Quite right. Who's doing it this time? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Tails: Oh. I guess it's me this time around. AK doesn't own me, Sonic, Shadow, or anyone else in this story. All he owns is the plot.**

**Me: Nicely done, Tails. Now please everyone, enjoy chapter nine and don't forget to review!**

**P.S.: Just a heads up, this chapter will consist mostly of dialogue. And I'm not so sure I did good on this one so please go easy on me.**

**Shadikal: How it is Possible?**

**Chapter 9: 50 Years Ago…**

**(Mystic Ruins; Tails' Workshop; 1:00 PM)**

Tails, Sonic, and Amy were all staring at the monitor with their jaws dropped as far down as they could go. Shadow had just willingly said he was going to tell Tikal everything about his past. And they couldn't help but be shocked. They knew very well what kind of past Shadow had. And Tikal came from another time in the distant past. How was she going to react when she heard a story like that?

"Everything?" Tails still had his jaw dropped. "He's going to tell her…everything?"

"Oh man. Shadow's screwed up bad on dates. But this one is going to be the worst. I just know it." Amy had no hope in this.

"Oh Tikal's gonna run away screaming after this." Sonic was smirking. Remember now, Sonic was against Shadow in this whole bet.

"Oh shut up, you." Amy warned him.

Now we're back to Shadow and Tikal, with the latter still waiting for the former to begin talking. And then he did.

"Before I tell you, there are things you have to understand." Shadow knew there were going to be a lot of things Tikal would know about. "Here's the main thing. Miles above the surface of this planet, is where outer space is."

"I know about outer space, Shadow. I was told about by my father." Tikal said.

Shadow looked her in the eyes.

"Did you know that it's possible for people to live there?"

THAT was new to the girl.

"How can people breathe in space?" she asked.

"Humans can't. But we Mobians can. That's not the point." Shadow got back on topic. "The point is, a space station was constructed to maintain orbit in space. It was called Space Colony ARK. It's pretty much a city in space. But it was mainly used for science."

While he talked, Tikal listened.

"I don't get why you're telling me about this…ARK." Tikal told him.

Shadow looked away. "Because…that's where I was created."

Tikal was surprised to hear that Shadow came from space, but she thought he misspoke when he said, "created" instead of "born". Now Shadow officially began.

"50 years ago…a brilliant professor named Gerald Robotnik lived onboard Space Colony ARK. He was a scientific genius and conducted most of his experiments there." Shadow spoke in that deep yet somewhat chilling tone of his. "Then he found out that his granddaughter, Maria had an incurable disease. And that's when he became bent on finding a cure."

"What kind of disease did she have?" Tikal asked.

Shadow shook his head. He did whenever he thought of her.

"I'm still not sure." He nearly whispered. "But the Professor nearly drove himself crazy trying to find the cure. It led him to try new experiments trying to find a way to expand the lifespan of normal human beings. And in the process, the result of his work…was me."

Tikal had absolutely no idea what Shadow was talking about. But his next words summed up what he had just explained in the last few minutes.

"I'm not a natural born hedgehog, Tikal." He said in a way that made it clear he didn't like it. "I'm a science experiment."

Now Tikal understood, and she realized that Shadow didn't misspeak before. But how could it be true? How could something that looks so real, so natural, really not be?

"The professor tried to turn me into the cure for Maria's disease, but he still came up short of success." Shadow went on. "So he decided to seek some help. He found an alien warlord from another planet named Black Doom."

"Black…Doom?" Tikal had never heard the name.

Shadow nodded confirming the name.

"Black Doom was in need of a weapon to enslave other planets, and Professor Gerald was in desperate needed some assistance in his experiments. So they made a deal. They would both be my creators. Black Doom would use his own blood to make me into the most powerful weapon ever. But Gerald still had some sanity. Behind Black Doom's back, he altered my purpose and made me to be a hero for this world. And then finally, I was born into the world."

There was no walking away for Tikal now. She was on the hook. She wanted to hear it all no matter how far it went.

"Then what happened?" she asked.

"Black Doom left before I was awakened. I never met him until years later, but I'll get to that part in time. Gerald was unsuccessful in finding a cure for Maria. But he was extremely happy that he had created the creature that he dubbed, "The Ultimate Lifeform". That being me."

The Ultimate Lifeform. As if he couldn't stop being any more interesting.

"The only friend I ever had on the ARK was Maria. She was the only one who ever saw me smile."

"But why?" Tikal asked. "You have a nice smile. I've seen it."

Shadow looked at her.

"Everyone else on the ARK was afraid of me. They thought I had so much power that I would use it against them."

"Did you?" Tikal asked.

"Of course not!" Shadow said that a little bit loud and he knew that when Tikal backed away from him a tiny bit. "I…I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout."

"It's okay." She said as she nudged back to where she was. "Keep going."

Shadow took a deep breath. His least favorite part of the story was coming up.

"It was just me and Maria. Two friends with a common dream. We wanted to come down here together and visit this world. Together."

"What happened?" she asked not knowing what was coming.

Once again, Shadow took a deep breath.

"The leader of this country sent soldiers up to the ARK to take control of it and stop all the experiments taking place. There had been rumors that the professor was plotting to take over the world. They were all lies. The soldiers…they came up there armed with weapons. They wanted to kill me. But instead…"

His voice became lost. Re-telling this story was making the dark hedgehog relive the painful memory all over again. He then felt the soft, warm hand of the girl next to him rub his shoulder.

"It's okay." She whispered. "You don't have to go on if you don't want to."

She got the idea that Shadow wasn't liking this whole experience, but he wanted to go on. He was already too far into it to stop here.

"I'm alright." He said. "Me and her were running through the corridors….She put me inside this capsule….but before she could get in with me to eject it down to the surface….there was a gunshot…and she fell to the ground."

Tikal covered her mouth. She knew something bad happened but she had no clue that someone died. Shadow was actually beginning to choke up much to her surprise.

"Maria wasn't a threat to anyone." He said. "She wouldn't have harmed a fly. Me and her always talked about coming down here to see this world together. Being here without her…"

He looked up to the sky and into outer space, where the ARK always was.

"She was my best friend. And I was hoping me and her could be more than that."

Once again, Tikal was shocked to hear that. Shadow was in love with someone? Hard to tell.

"The day I worked up enough courage to tell her was when they came." He began to choke up again. "I was going to tell her I loved her…and instead…I got to watch her die right in front of my very eyes."

Speaking of his eyes, he had them squeezed shut tight trying, and succeeding in holding back tears. He never EVER showed weakness to anyone. And he didn't want to look weak right now. Especially in front of this particular girl. Then he felt that hand of hers again on his shoulder. It was so smooth…and comforting.

"That's horrible." She said.

Tikal wanted to tell him about her own past now to make him feel better, but she started to re-consider. She had lost her entire tribe because they became mad with power. It wasn't really related to what Shadow had gone through. He had lost someone he had developed romantic feelings for, and then he watched her pass away.

"I'm really sorry I made you tell me that." She said to him.

Shadow looked back into her eyes.

"It's alright. I said I would tell you everything." He told her.

And he wasn't even near done.

"After I was launched away from the ark, I crashed landed into the surface and it made me go into a fifty year long sleep."

"Fifty years?" What was with Tikal getting surprised today? "Who woke you up?"

"Dr. Eggman did. He discovered Professor Gerald's diary and learned of my existence. He wanted to use me to take over the world."

"And you said no." Tikal assumed that was the right answer.

Shadow looked away from her again and that made her suspicious.

"You did say no. Right?"

He slowly shook his head. "I was so angry at the humans. I wanted revenge so badly, I didn't care who got in my way."

Tikal frowned at him, shocked again, but this time with a bit disappointment in the black hedgehog.

Shadow told her everything about the whole Eclipse Cannon fiasco and the battle with the Final Hazard. And when that was done, he went on to say how he survived the fall to the surface and then he got to what he thought was the worst part. The Black Arms.

Tikal had heard already that Black Doom was Shadow's blood father, but she didn't know exactly who he really was.

"Black Doom came to Earth to find me. And like Eggman, he hoped to use me against the humans. And again, I agreed to."

"But why? You didn't even know who he was." Tikal said.

"That's exactly why I agreed to it." Shadow replied. "I had no idea who I was or who anyone else was. I was desperate to find out my past. I would have done anything. And unfortunately…I did just about anything."

Shadow looked away from her again.

"I killed so many humans. It's….unforgiveable. It was right after that I found out the whole truth about my past and what I was meant to do. I told Black Doom I left the past behind me. But the truth behind that is…I haven't. Please tell me you won't tell anyone what I've told you or what I'm about to."

Tikal nodded her head and Shadow continued.

"I said to him that I was over my past…but I lied. I just said that to act tough. Ever since I got the full extent of my memory back, I've never forgiven myself for what I've done." His head was now hanging down. "After I defeated him, I didn't expect anyone to forgive me. And I was right. They didn't."

Tikal had felt a lot of different things about Shadow during the whole course of this story. But it seemed that one she had felt most was sympathy. Sympathy for the hedgehog. It was probably something that no one else had given him. But still, the things he had done were like he said, unforgiveable.

"And that's pretty much it." Shadow wrapped it all up. "I'm an artificially created hedgehog with amazing powers, who used them for all the wrong reasons. I've disgraced Maria. And that's what kills me the most."

It was right there Shadow did something that no one else, not even Maria, had ever seen him do. He held back the water in his eyes no longer, and silently cried. He opened up his eyes and looked at Tikal again.

"If you want to get up and leave, I understand." He said.

The hedgehog looked away from her expecting her to get up and go away. Just like everyone else did. But then he felt something on top of his hand. It was Tikal's own hand.

Shadow slowly looked back at her with his tears still flowing down his muzzle. Her mouth was flat, so it was hard to tell what kind of feeling she had for him right now. She slowly stood up and pulled him up with her.

"Take us to the beach, Shadow."

Shadow made a face and rubbed his eyes. Why in the world would she want to go there?

"Why?"

"I want to show you something. Just take us to the beach."

That was all she said. And Shadow got curious. But he was surprised to see that this girl wasn't running away from him. But whether she had that on her mind was still unknown to him.

He took out his Emerald, and performed Chaos Control. The two of them ended up in the exact same place on the beach they were at yesterday. There was no one around, and the ocean was very calm. There were no waves crashing. Tikal led the ebony hedgehog to the edge of the water and then she walked into the water itself so their feet were soaked.

"Tikal, what are we doing here?"

She looked at him.

"Shadow, I want you to look down, and tell me what you see."

Well…this was new. Shadow was still failing to see the point in all this. But he asked no questions. He looked straight down and saw the reds of his own eyes in the reflection of himself.

"I see me." Was all he said.

"Look closer." She told him.

Shadow got a bit irritated. All she was having him do was look at his reflection. But he kept looking at himself.

"I only my reflection."

Now Tikal got annoyed. Apparently she wasn't getting her point across.

"You mean all you can see is your reflection? Nothing else?"

Shadow waved his hands up in the air.

"There's nothing more to see, Tikal. It's just my reflection in the water." His voice rose up a little bit.

"Oh really? You wanna know what _I _see?"

Now Shadow was really confused. What SHE saw? That didn't make any sense to him.

"What I see, is a hedgehog who has made some mistakes in his past, yes." She started. "But despite his mistakes, he's tried his best to make up for them by trying AND succeeding, in saving this world."

Now Shadow understood. It was one of those, "look past what you already see" exercises. And Tikal wasn't done.

"You may have killed people, but I want you to answer me right now. Are you sorry for what you've done?"

Shadow looked her dead in the eyes.

"Of course I'm sorry. I regret every single death that I am responsible for."

Tikal smiled at him.

"Then you listen to me, Shadow the Hedgehog. Even if you were created in some sort of lab in space, it doesn't matter to me. When I first met you, I thought you were just this lone wolf who was always angry at everything. But then I remembered to always look past the outer shell. And that's when I found out. You're just misunderstood is all."

Shadow had no idea where she was going with this. It was like she made no sense.

"But I understand." She said. "You witnessed a tragedy a long time ago and you wanted revenge against the people you thought were responsible. But eventually, you saw the truth. And you did everything in your power to make it right. And yet, people still look on you as if you're still a threat. And that makes you angry. Doesn't it? The fact that you saved them and they're still afraid of you."

Shadow's eyes began to widen. How the hell did she know all that? He nodded his head.

"Well you know what? Don't worry about them." Tikal said. "Because what I see standing in front of me, is a very brave hedgehog who would give up anything, even his own life to keep his promise to a friend to keep this world safe. Multiple times if he had to. And in my opinion, that is the best kind of person that I think could ever exist in this world."

Shadow started to crack a smile. This girl had gotten through to him like no one else could.

"And even though you're not a natural born hedgehog, whoever created you…did a very good job. Especially on the color of your eyes." That was her last line in her whole speech.

Shadow was still smiling. Tikal was right. About everything. He had put his life on the line several times to keep this world and its people safe from harm. And he felt like the people had no appreciation for his actions. It made him mad to know that. But knowing that one person, even if that one person was born long before those events even took place, it made him feel…happy. Happy to know that someone wasn't afraid of him, but was also willing to be his friend. Sure Sonic and the others had offered, but they annoyed him. Tikal was different.

He smiled at her again for that last line. No one had ever complimented him about his eyes. Everyone else thought they were scary because no one else on the face of Mobius had red eyes like he did. Well…Sonic did when he turned into Super Sonic, but that was something else entirely.

Tikal's hand was on his shoulder again. And this time, Shadow put his own hand on top of hers.

"Thank you." He said with a smile. "Now, would you like to go back and finish lunch with me?"

"I would that very much." Tikal replied politely.

Without saying anything, Shadow teleported him and Tikal back to the spot where they were before and they resumed eating the food that Amy and Cream had made for them.

**(Mystic Ruins; 1:35 PM)**

In Tails' house, he, Sonic, and Amy still had their own jaws dropped. They didn't expect Tikal to take that story so smoothly in a million years.

"She took that…rather well." Tails said in a stunned voice.

Amy on the other hand, was squealing with delight.

"EEEEEEEEEE! I win! I win! I win the bet!"

"Now hold on!"

Sonic held up his hand like he was a crossing guard at school telling cars to stop. Amy stopped cheering and looked at him.

"The deal was Shadow had to be in love with her. We don't know that he's in love."

Amy of course got a bit angry.

"Are you freaking kidding me? We're you not watching the same thing I was? I mean come on! How could Shadow not be in love with her?"

"You can't be sure just by watching them, Amy. They have to say it." Sonic told her.

"That wasn't what to we agreed to!" Amy shouted.

Sonic slapped his forehead. "Oh for the love of…Tails, help me out here."

Tails let his head drop and bang on his desk. Great. Now he had to a be a judge. Sonic was looking at him hoping for some backup, while Amy glared at him with an expression telling him to go to her side.

He wanted to side with Amy so he wouldn't hear her scream, but Tails wasn't unfair about anything,

"Amy…Sonic is right. Sure they may like each other, but I haven't seen anything here that even suggests love is in the air."

"WHAT?"

Tails covered his ears.

"How can you say that?" She yelled.

Tails got mad for a change and stood up.

"Hey! I'm already risking twenty years in prison by hacking into GUN if you recall! So I can say what I want!"

Amy's face dropped and she took a step back from the angry fox.

Tails closed his eyes, clasped his hands together, and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"Alright, here's what's going to happen." Tails went on. "In exchange for my services in surveillance, I want to make sure this bet is clear. So I'm issuing a ruling here."

Both the hedgehog's nodded and let him continue.

"All the rules you two set up in the beginning of this thing still apply but with one more thing: Shadow and Tikal both have to admit their feelings to the other if they ever develop any, AND before the time span of this bet is up. That's nearly four weeks. Sound agreeable?"

Sonic and Amy went into a stare down. Sonic had the utmost confidence that Shadow would never tell Tikal about any feelings he had if he ever got any towards her.

Amy on the other had had total faith in Shadow. Sure he was a bit of a hardass, but what she saw today gave her the belief that he would grow more and more comfortable around her. And then, love would spring.

"Fine." Amy said.

"It's a deal." Sonic held out his hand.

Amy grabbed it with her own and they shook on the new agreement.

Shadow had four weeks. One month. Would that be enough time?

**Me: Man. Call me crazy if you guys want to, but I'm sure I could have done this better. My brain just went dead on ideas for it though.**

**Sonic: In all fairness, AK, I think whether this chapter sucked or not is up to the readers.**

**Tails: He's right. Let THEM decide.**

**Me: I guess. But I'm gonna down to the basement.**

**Shadow: Sweet. I'm in.**

**Knuckles: Me too.**

**Blaze: Hold on. AK, I thought you were done with the basement.**

**Me: No. I just said I was taking a break from it. Well the break is over.**

**Shadow: Well then let's get going. AK, get you're gay purple lighter and let's go.**

**Me: Alright I'll be right there. I'll be back with chapter ten as soon as I can get back to my computer. Until then, peace bitches.**

**P.S. I actually DO have a purple Zippo lighter. I don't even know why I bought it. I just thought it looked cool.**


	10. Holy

**Me: Hey bitches! Guess what I got?**

**Tails: The sequel to A Spy's Day Off?**

**Me: Ha ha! No. I got chapter ten.**

**Sonic: And there's no doubt about it, AK. The previous chapter far from sucked. So says the reviewers. **

**Me: I know. It's just so awesome.**

**Tails: When are you going to get to the sequel to A Spy's Day Off, AK?**

**Me: I don't know, Tails. It might be a while.**

**Silver: He just wants you to start it because it's about him and Cream. **

**Me: Relax, Tails. And it's not like I haven't written about you and Cream before.**

**Tails: That doesn't really count. Just chapters five and nine in A Spy's Day off and in the epilogue in Of Chao and Hedgehogs.**

**Me: Ah. Of Chao and Hedgehogs. The only Sonamy story I have right now. Actually, that story had a bit of everything if I recall. Knouge, Silvaze, other stuff…**

**Sonic: Why don't you write more Sonamy, AK?**

**Amy: Yeah. Why is that?**

**Me: Because I'm too busy with everything else right now. Speaking of which, who's doing the disclaimer? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Blaze: Oh. Alright then. AK does not own Shadow, Tikal, or anyone else here. We're all owned by SEGA. AK only owns the plot.**

**Me: So enjoy chapter ten and remember to review.**

**Amy: AND READ OF CHAO AND HEDGEHOGS! PLEASE! I BEG OF YOU! **

**Me: Shut up, Amy!**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 10: Holy….**

**(Two and a half weeks later; 2:30 PM)**

Two and a half weeks passed by. And in every day in those weeks, Shadow and Tikal saw each other. Each of them were now fully comfortable around the other. And their dates were being spied on now by the Chaotix. Tails hired them to spy on the two with a video camera linked right to his computer. No more hassling with multiple hidden cameras in separate locations. Just one camera held by one person. It was a lot easier.

Tikal was very happy both with herself, AND with Shadow. She was happy for herself because she was enjoying life now in ways she never even thought were possible back in her own time with her tribe. It was nice being around other females, and other animal species for that matter. The reason she was happy for Shadow was because ever since that second date, he had been much more open with her than he had been with anyone else.

But Shadow felt differently. Sure she was happy and enjoyed Tikal's company. But there was still that question that had yet to be answered. Why? Why did he feel like this? Two and a half weeks. That's seventeen to eighteen days. He had seen her every one of those days and he still had no clue as to why she was making him act and feel like this. It was driving him up the wall. Sure he was fine when he was with her. But when he wasn't, he just got more and more annoyed at himself because he couldn't find that stupid answer. It was like he was trying to discover his past all over again. Trying to answer questions that seem nearly impossible to answer and whatnot.

Today, Shadow had taken the girl out of town, away from Station Square. There was this restaurant built into an old lighthouse. It had been run down for a time, but someone who had zero time on their hands bought it and made it run again. Then that guy built a restaurant inside of it. It's now one of the most popular places in the world. A restaurant lighthouse that overlooks the ocean. It's not exactly the most original idea. It's been done plenty of times. But this one was located on its own little private island right offshore the beach of Westopolis. It took a boat ride to get out there, and then you can either go to the lighthouse, or you could simply take a walk through the forest of the island, which was very beautiful if you had the patience to look at it.

In the bushes, right on the edge of the entrance to the forest, the three members of the Chaotix, Vector, Espio, and Charmy. The croc had Tails yellow camera in his hand and he had the thing recording and on full zoom. He saw the dark hedgehog and the girl echidna sitting across from each other with forks in their hands. Vector couldn't believe it.

"Man. I don't get it. How come I can't get a girl, but Shadow, the darkest guy I've ever met, get one of the cutest echidnas I've ever seen?" he said.

Espio sweatdropped.

"Uh Vector?"

"Yeah what?"

"You do know there are only two echidnas in this world counting her. With the other one being Knuckles. You know that right?" the chameleon asked with general concern.

Vector fell flat on his face when he realized what he said.

"You know what I mean." He corrected. "But still. I don't get it. How did he do it?"

Vector continued to look through the camera.

"Maybe it's because he listens to a girl when she talks. Something you should learn to do." Espio said simply.

Vector glared at the purple one.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?" he asked a bit offended.

"You went on one date in the past, Vector." Espio started. "I seem to remember the events of it very clearly."

"Hey! Henrietta was a mistake!" the croc shouted. "She just wouldn't shut up."

"All you did was stare at her chest while she talked. And when she finally realized what you were doing, she splashed her drink in your face and storm out."

Charmy began to laugh.

"Oh yeah! That was SO funny!" the bee rolled over clutching his stomach as he laughed hard remembering the subject.

Vector growled.

"HEY! AT LEAST I HAVE ENOUGH CLASS TO GO ON A DATE!"

Espio shoved his head down to the ground.

"Will you two keep quiet? Shadow might hear us." He whispered.

"Fine." Vector leaned back up and focused the camera again.

Shadow and Tikal were still eating and thinking about the same things. But then Tikal brought up something that she had been wanting to ask the dark one, but kept forgetting to.

"So tell me. What else can you do with a Chaos Emerald besides teleporting?" she asked.

Shadow swallowed some of his meal. It was a fair question.

"Mainly all the abilities I have come from the Chaos Emeralds, my most common one being Chaos Control. I can also do others like Chaos Spear and Chaos Blast."

That made Tikal a bit puzzled. Those last two she had never heard of.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" Shadow looked at her face and saw that.

Yes. She was that obvious. She nodded her head.

"Well…Chaos Spear pretty much speaks for itself. I just shoot a couple of spears made of raw Chaos Energy at an enemy."

Tikal nodded again. That was simple to understand.

"But Chaos Blast is something different." He looked away from her. "Chaos Blast is a very devastating attack."

Tikal narrowed her eyes. "How devastating?"

Shadow immediately cursed himself. He knew she hated violence, and Chaos Blast was one of the most violent attacks out there.

"Chaos Blast is an explosion of one hundred percent negative energy." He said to her. "Whatever or WHOever is caught in its blast radius is immediately destroyed."

And he was right. Tikal wasn't thrilled about that at all.

"Do you use it often?" she needed to be sure.

"I've used it very rarely and only as a last resort."

That was enough for her. As long has he didn't LIKE to do it, it was okay. She told him that and he took a sigh of relief.

The two of them were able to carry out their meal in peace. When they were finished, Shadow paid the check, and the two of them walked into the forest to have a look around.

That was a good idea. Tikal loved it. She loved the scenery, the flowers, their smell, pretty much anything you name, she liked it. There was a bush full of completely bloomed red roses on their path. Shadow picked the one he thought looked the best. And he gently put the flower in between Tikal's dreadlocks.

Tikal smiled at him and he smiled back. When she giggled, Shadow smiled even more. Even her laugh made him happy. How often does that happen with someone? Then it came time for Shadow to take Tikal back to the mainland. But before he did, he wanted this date to have a big finish.

"I guess we should head back to the boat." Tikal said.

Shadow smirked at her.

"Yeah. We could do that. I could take you back myself." He said.

Tikal thought she knew what he meant. Chaos Control.

"Alright then."

She expected for Shadow to bring out his Chaos Emerald and say the magic words, but she gave a small yelp when the hedgehog picked her up and held her bridal style.

"Shadow?"

He smiled at her again.

"Hang on."

Shadow took off running as fast as he could. And then the rockets on the soles of his shoes turned on and he began to skate like he always did. But this was the first time Tikal had ever seen him skate. He was going much faster than the common running speed in normal Mobians. But then again, he wasn't really running.

Tikal held on tight to Shadow as she wrapped her arms around him. But when she saw that he was heading right for the ocean, she started to feel a bit unsure.

"Uuuhhhh….Shadow?"

"Just trust me." Was all he said.

He kept his course for the water. She shut her eyes and prepared to get wet.

But she didn't. She was dry.

She opened up her eyes and saw that she was right above the water of the open ocean and Shadow's feet were hovering inches above it. Once she saw that, she relaxed herself. Then Shadow picked up speed. She couldn't tell exactly how fast he was going. But if she had to put a number on it, she would've guessed somewhere around 500 miles an hour. Which was plenty fast for her.

She smiled wide once again and looked at her friend. He had already given so much over these past few weeks, and this wasn't even the end of it. She held out one of her arms and let her fingers lightly brush over the water. The drips that clung to her fingers were soon dried away by the wind from the speed they were going at. She put that arm around his neck again and he smiled. Her hands had no gloves on them today. And they felt so warm and comforting. Very soon, they got to the beach on the mainland and Shadow stopped to put Tikal down. When her feet touched the ground, she was kinda sad that it was over so quickly.

"So? What did you think?" Shadow asked.

Tikal gave a small giggle and smiled at him.

"That was incredible." She replied. "I've never gone that fast before."

The ebony one nodded and then he said the two words that he had probably said the most in his life.

"Chaos Control!"

In less than a second, the two of them found themselves back on Angel Island in front of the giant staircase to the Master Emerald shrine. Knuckles was there looking at them.

"Hi Knckles!" Tikal waved to him.

Knuckles smiled and waved back at the girl. Then she looked back at Shadow.

"So…when do you want to do this again?" she asked.

Shadow thought about that for a second. He had taken her on a lot of dates now. He was running out of ideas. What else was there? He had taken her to dinner, lunch, breakfast, movies, hell he even took her to see a few musicals. Which he very much despised, but it was a recommendation by Amy. There had to be something else he hadn't thought of yet. Then…as if it were some form of magic, he thought of something.

"Tomorrow morning. Before sunrise." He said.

Tikal was puzzled by that.

"Before sunrise? I don't understand."

Shadow gave off that smiled of his again to reassure her.

"Trust me. You'll love it."

Hearing him say that was enough to satisfy her. She smiled, and then she tried something else instead of their regular hug. She gave him a kiss on his cheek. At first Shadow showed absolutely no emotion. But when a shadow of red appeared on his muzzle, Tikal couldn't help but giggle again.

"See you tomorrow." She waved and headed to Knuckles' house.

Shadow waved back slightly and then with the same hand, touched his cheek in the exact spot where she kissed him. That was entirely new for him. He had never been kissed before. Not even Maria did that. He turned to leave, but then Knuckles stopped him.

"Well well well. I think someone's falling in love." He said with a smirk.

That's when Shadow's original behavior came back up again for the first time in weeks. He turned around with a familiar frown.

"What makes you think that?" he said in his normal dark and ominous tone.

"Well." Knuckles had a list. "You've been seeing Tikal every day now for two and a half weeks, you're smiling which isn't normal for you, and when she gave you that kiss…" Knuckles liked this part the most. "…your face turned as red as my fur."

Shadow looked away. He hated that Knuckles was right. He immediately tried to deny it.

"I wasn't blushing." He said a bit louder than necessary. "It was probably a burn from the sunlight on that island."

Knuckles kept on smirking.

"Well it seems to be gone now. Explain that."

Shadow froze up. And Knuckles' grin spread from ear to ear.

"Oh come on Shadow. You like Tikal. Just tell me why exactly."

Shadow finally looked back at him.

"That's just it. I don't know why I feel this way towards her. But I have to find out."

Knuckles' grin became a frown after he heard that.

"Wait." He was smarter than he let on. "Is that what this whole thing is, Shadow? Some kind of experiment?"

That offended Shadow a bit.

"No! This isn't an experiment!" he shouted.

"Well then why exactly are you dating her?"

"Because I need to be sure of my feelings before I confess them to her!"

A long pause overtook the general area. And the two Mobians were having a stare down.

"Look." Shadow went on. "To be honest, I'm not sure what I've got going on in my head regarding Tikal. I know there's something there, but I want to be absolutely positive what I'm feeling for her is real. Is that too much to ask for?"

Now it was Knuckles turn to look away. He didn't really like the way that sounded. It was as if Shadow was only doing this for himself and not for Tikal at all.

"Alright, fine. Do what you have to do." He said. "But I swear, if you hurt her…"

Shadow pulled out his Emerald.

"I won't."

Shadow teleported himself away and back to that cliff side where he told Tikal all about his past. But then he started to think about that past. He reminisced from time to time about his old life on Space Colony ARK with Maria. He reached behind his back and out of nowhere, a picture frame appeared in his hand. It was an eight by ten picture of him and Maria. Maria had her pretty smile, and Shadow had his usual flat mouth.

Shadow chuckled a little. Life for him had changed so much. He had a great friend in his life who he was starting to fall for. That was his main focus. She was kind, gentle, loving, hated violence, and she always looked for the best in people. In fact, Tikal was almost exactly like…like….

HOLD UP!

Shadow went into a wide eyed expression. He looked at the picture, then up at Angel Island. Then back at the picture, then the island. The picture, the island. The picture, the island.

"Oh. My. God."

It finally happened. The answer Shadow had been looking for had finally been bestowed upon him.

**Amy: Wow AK. I've never seen you put so much devotion into a story before.**

**Me: Thank you Amy. But whether it's god or not is up to the readers.**

**Tails: Do you honestly think this chapter sucked AK?**

**Me: Not really. All the reviews I got from last chapter gave me some encouragement that I really needed.**

**Sonic: So no more doubting yourself?**

**Me: Probably not. But I gotta go now. Please review everyone and if you're at all interested, check out all my other storied. I promise you won't be disappointed. Especially with A Spy's Day Off.**

**I'll get chapter eleven up ASAP. Until then, peace bitches.**


	11. The Answer

**Me: Hey bitches! I got chapter 11! Are you ready for it?**

**Rouge: Yes we're ready for it! Now get to it already!**

**Me: Jeez! Alright. I guess the opener is going to be a little shorter than usual. I'll do the ever famous disclaimer this time I around. I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, or any other characters in this story. I only own the plot.**

**And thanks goes out to everyone out there who has read this story and extra thanks goes out who helped me out by reviewing it. Thanks everyone and I hope you like chapter eleven!**

**(Oh yeah. I probably should have said this before, but this story takes place after my other story, I Saw Knuckles Kissin Rouge the Bat.) I will be making references.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 11: The Answer**

**(Knuckles' House; 4:30 PM)**

Inside the house, Rouge and Tikal were just relaxing and doing their own thing. Rouge was awake filing her ungloved nails, and Tikal was asleep on the couch napping. Knuckles was outside doing his guardian thing. It got on Rouge's nerves at times that Knuckles spent most of the time outside and away from everyone. But it was nice when he came inside and cuddled next to her. He wasn't much of a cuddler and he warned her never to tell anyone that he ever DID cuddle. It would ruin his image.

Of course Rouge understood that. Sometimes she even used that little piece of information against him as leverage to get what she wants. Like fancy dates and other stuff like that. But she still loves him nonetheless.

Her cell phone rang and she looked at the caller ID to see who it was. There was no name or number. Curious, she answered it.

"Rouge the Bat here."

"Rouge it's me."

Rouge's eyes opened up all the way when she heard that voice. She got up and walked away so she wouldn't wake Tikal.

"Shadow? Where are you calling me from?"

"A payphone."

"Okay. Even more confusing, WHY are you calling me?"

"I need to talk to someone and unfortunately you were at the top of my list."

Rouge grunted.

"Boy. You know just what to say to a girl. Don't you?"

"Look, I really need to talk to you. I wouldn't be calling if I didn't want to."

Rouge shrugged. He sounded like he actually meant it.

"Well when you put it like THAT…wait a minute. Why not talk to Tikal? You've been doing it a lot lately."

"Because it's HER I need to talk to you about."

Another load of confusion pounded its way into Rouge's head.

"You want to talk to me…about Tikal?" she asked.

"Yes. It's important. Meet me at the boat docks in Emerald Coast in half an hour."

"Wait! Shadow!"

It was too late. Shadow hung up on her. Rouge stomped the ground and sighed.

"That hedgehog can REALLY get under my skin." She said icily.

Despite her unwillingness to even want to go, she thought about it. Shadow never called anyone from any kind of phone to want to talk. This must actually be important.

"_Okay. I'll just go to the docks, hear what he has to say, and then leave. It's as easy as that."_

As she walked out of the house, Knuckles saw her.

"Where ya headed?" he asked.

"Just going out for a quick flight. Be back in an hour." She looked up at the top of the shrine and blew her red boyfriend a kiss.

Knuckles shrugged believing her. Rouge went to the edge of the island and jumped off it as she spread her wings. Along the way, Rouge thought even more about Shadow's call. It was probably his first one ever using an actual phone. And he wanted to talk about a girl of all things.

"_Shadow's changing. Ever since he met her, he's been different." _Rouge smirked thinking she knew what was going on. _"Could Shadow actually be full on, head over heels in love with her?"_

Shadow in love. To everyone who actually knew Shadow, this would be the equivalent to hell freezing over. Rouge descended down to the docks and viewed the many boats tied up to them. Then with her keen eyesight, she saw a black spot in one of the larger more fancy sailboats. That spot was Shadow. She landed on the deck of the boat and Shadow was sitting behind the captain's wheel. Rouge looked around the boat. It was almost entirely painted black with red trim. On the side of the boat it read the name, "Maria".

"Is this your boat?" Rouge immediately asked.

Shadow nodded and looked around. "Yep. This is the Maria."

"Okay. Where did you get the money to buy a freaking boat?" the bat asked.

"I didn't buy it. I built it myself. Well…Foxboy helped me."

Rouge looked around the boat one more time before turning back to Shadow with an even more confused expression on her face.

"Next question: Why did you build a boat?"

"It was a few days after Black Doom was destroyed and I regained the full extent of my memory. I wasn't really doing very well. Building this boat took my mind off of things for a few weeks and helped me relax."

Again, Rouge observed the boat. It was very nice. There was even a trapdoor to a lower deck.

"Very nice. Have you ever sailed before?" she inquired.

Shadow stood up and walked around.

"A few times. I actually plan to take Tikal out early tomorrow."

Rouge remembered why she was there in the first place now.

"Okay. Why do you want to talk to me about her? You falling in love with her?"

"Before we get to that, I want to ask you something." Shadow said.

Rouge relaxed herself and took a seat on a bench in the boat.

"Okay. Shoot." She was all ears.

"Is it possible to be in love with someone because that person reminds of you of someone else?"

That was not anything near the type of question Rouge was expecting. She rubbed her forehead trying to think of the best answer to that question.

"Uuummm…I…suppose. Why? Does Tikal remind you of someone?"

Shadow nodded his head.

"Who?"

"Rouge…Tikal is almost in every way like Maria."

What? Maria? All this time, the snow bat thought Shadow was finally letting go of all that. And now here he is on a boat telling her that the girl he's seeing is like his lost friend.

"So is it possible?" Shadow asked again.

Rouge rubbed her forehead a bit harder. Was there really an answer to that question?

"Honestly Shadow, I'm not really sure." She had to give him something for an answer. "But first, let's talk. Why does Tikal remind you of Maria?"

Shadow immediately had a response to that question anticipating it in the first place.

"Tikal's very kind, cares about others more than herself, hates violence, and she always tries to find good in everyone. Maria was the exact same."

Rouge nodded her head as if she was a therapist. Technically in this case, she was. But she still didn't have a solid answer for him.

"Is that it?" Rouge asked to be sure.

"Actually, the circumstances are the same."

Rouge made another face.

"Wha…circumstances?"

"Let me explain." It was almost as if Shadow had the whole conversation planned out.

"Maria never got a chance to set foot on this world. So she never knew what it was like down here. And now, Tikal arrives here also not knowing a thing about this place."

Rouge nodded again. "Okay, I'm following. Continue."

"I've been showing Tikal around this world just as I would have with Maria. Don't you see Rouge? Tikal is some sort of sign."

"Sign? What kind of sign, Shadow?"

"A sign that someone like me can have a second chance."

Rouge's head had already worked a double shift when it came to thinking today, and it wasn't even dark yet. Shadow thinking Tikal was a sign was a bit strange, but it wasn't entirely false. Everyone had to agree that Shadow was lightening up his attitude ever since he had started seeing the girl. To them it was a sign that his rude behavior would soon vanish altogether. And Shadow IS happy with her. But still…being in love with someone who reminds you of another person?

"Shadow, I honestly understand you feel. You saw Maria die in front of you and you think you can make right with Tikal." Rouge assumed.

Shadow nodded agreeing with her.

"But here's the thing." Rouge wasn't finished. "It's understandable you think Tikal is like Maria, but I really don't suggest you say that to her face."

Now Shadow showed a hint of confusion.

"Why not?"

"Because although it's kind of sweet, girls don't like it when you think of someone else when you look at them. Its kind like calling a girl the wrong name when you're talking to her. How do you think she'll react to that?"

Shadow hadn't thought about that.

"Oh crap."

"It's alright. You can relate the two girls together as much as you want. But there has be a difference between them. Everyone likes to be appreciated for who they are as their own person without be compared like a Venn diagram. Understand?" Rouge explained.

Shadow nodded. And then he asked, "How did Knuckles fall in love with you?"

The bat did a double take.

"Why…why do you want to know that?"

"I'm just curious to know how he felt so I can know if I'm feeling the same thing."

Rouge groaned. This was NOT how she wanted her day to pan out. But, Shadow was confused like a lost little boy when it came to stuff like this. He actually needed help.

"You remember last Christmas? When I got mad at Knuckles and ran out of Amy's party crying?"

"Of course I do."

"And then do you remember what happened?" Rouge asked.

Shadow remembered the events. Christmas Eve one year ago was the day Knuckles and Rouge actually became a couple. It was months before Shadow had even met Black Doom.

Amy was having a karaoke Christmas party in her house and the song Sonic sang was actually about the couple. But Knuckles went on the defensive and denied any feelings he had for Rouge just to shut up the blue hedgehog. Rouge took what he said seriously and ran out with tears going down her face. Knuckles eventually worked up the courage to apologize and confess, but it was thanks to Shadow that was possible.

"Of course I remember." Shadow said.

"You should have gotten some idea of what Knuckles was feeling when you talked to him that night." Rouge stated.

"He sounded like he really cared for you. He cared enough to just leave that stupid rock of his and spend the night with you."

"Exactly." Rouge made her point. "Knuckles cared enough about me more than anything and he still does. That's what love is. Caring about someone more than you care about yourself. Do you care about Tikal?"

"Yes. Very much."

"Then you should tell her."

Shadow rubbed his muzzle. He wanted to tell her, but where and when?

"I'll tell her tomorrow on our date."

"Good. Are we done here?"

"I guess." Shadow gave her the okay to leave.

Rouge nodded and turned to leave. She jumped in the air, and then she turned around while hovering.

"Oh and Shadow?"

"What?"

"Love her for who she is. Not for whom she reminds you of."

With that, Rouge took off back to Angel Island, leaving Shadow alone with his boat and his thoughts.

Tikal was almost in every way like Maria to him. If she was human with blonde hair, he would probably be stalking her. But there just had to be a difference between the two of them. He couldn't put his finger on it but there had to be at least ONE thing about the two girls that didn't relate. Even their eyes had the same dark blue to them. It was uncanny. He thought he had enough problems trying to find out why he liked Tikal in the first place. And now that he found THAT answer, he was back to square one trying to find another one.

But he decided to wave it off and clean up his boat to make it presentable for tomorrow. He grabbed a mob and started to clean the deck hoping that his plans for tomorrow would go smoothly. It wouldn't be long.

**Me: Wow. I was really hoping to get this chapter up sooner than this. Sorry I'm late everyone.**

**Shadow: All I care about is making you sure you update.**

**Me: Your constant death threats and pointing a gun to my head don't really help the situation.**

**Shadow: You finally finished this chapter.**

**Me:…shut up!**

**Amy: Shadow, put the gun down. Let him relax.**

**Me: Thank you, Amy.**

**Oh yeah. One more thing. Along with thanking everyone for reviewing already, I would like to thank silverdawn2010 for giving me a little assistance. The question I had Shadow ask Rouge was a very tough one. I couldn't really answer it myself. THAT'S why I'm late with updating. Like Shadow, I couldn't answer the question. So I asked silverdawn and she helped me.**

**So…thanks silverdawn.**

**I'll be back as quick as I can with chapter twelve. Until then, peace bitches.**


	12. Dawn on the High Seas

**Me: Hey bitches! Chapter 12 is here! **

**Amy: When will the Sonamy return, AK?**

**Me: The name of this story is Shadikal. Not Sonamy. Don't you worry. Maybe there will be in the sequel.**

**Everyone: SEQUEL?**

**Sonic: There's going to be a sequel to this story?**

**Me: Yes. I planned the sequel when I finished chapter two of this. **

**Knuckles: So what's that sequel going to be about?**

**Me: I'm going to leave that a secret, but I'm pretty sure whoever's been reading this story closely has a good idea of what it might be.**

**Shadow: Enough of this banter! AK! Disclaimer!**

**Me: Alright alright. Who's turn is it for the disclaimer? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Sonic: Alright then. AK doesn't own me or anyone else in this world. He only owns the plot of this story.**

**Me: Thank you, Sonic. And now, I hope everyone enjoys this chapter.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 12: Dawn on the High Seas**

**(Angel Island; 5:50 AM)**

It was still dark outside and the stars were still shining. Inside the house next to the shrine to the Master Emerald, Tikal was the only one awake. She had gotten up recently to get ready for Shadow's arrival. Knuckles and Rouge were upstairs asleep together so Tikal was very careful not to wake them.

Tikal was anxious for Shadow to arrive. This was an unusual time for a date. So she figured it had to be one that was a bit more special. She smiled at that thought. Shadow was the only boy she had ever been this close to. And it felt good to be that close to a person. She was closer to Shadow than she ever was with her own father.

She sat on the couch and twirled her dreadlocks as she waited. Then she heard a very soft knock on the door. With a wide smile on her face, she rushed to the door and opened it up, eager to see his ruby red eyes. And there they were.

"Hey." The hedgehog greeted.

"Hi." Tikal walked out the door and gently closed it so she wouldn't wake her hosts. "So…where are we going?"

Shadow smiled at her and then he offered his hand. Tikal giggled and gently grasped it as her date pulled out his Chaos Emerald.

"You'll find out right now. Chaos Control."

In less than a second, Tikal found herself off Angel Island and someplace else entirely. It was still dark so she couldn't see it very clearly. But then she lost her balance a little when the footing slowly moved up and down. Then a light shone from behind her and saw that Shadow had lit up a lamp hanging from a post that seemed to rise up to the sky. She followed the pole to realize that it wasn't a pole. It was a mast. Then she looked over the edge of where she was and saw water. She looked at Shadow.

"Are we on a boat?" she asked.

"Actually, we're on MY boat." Shadow replied with that not-so-rare-anymore smile.

He jumped onto the dock and untied the ropes that held the boat in place. Then he pushed the boat off and teleported back onto it. He went over to where the captain's wheel was and turned a key that started the motor up. He steered them out of the docks and into the open ocean.

Once again, Tikal spun around and viewed the boat as Shadow turned on the rest of the lamps and rose up the sails. It was a much bigger boat than she had seen from her own time. And she had never been on a sailboat before. Usually the boats from her own time were usually small rowboats that only two could occupy at max. But this boat she was on right now was much bigger. There were two gigantic sail masts, and the sails themselves were white with a strange red symbol on them. It was a round looking spiral with twisting spikes coming out. It was Shadow's symbol, but Tikal didn't know that. The same one was on the side of the boat as well along with the letters in gold, M-A-R-I-A.

"You named this boat after Maria?" she asked.

"Mm-hm." Shadow hummed in response.

Tikal walked up to where Shadow was behind the wheel.

"It's beautiful." She said.

Shadow looked into her eyes. "To be honest, I've never taken anyone else out on this thing before."

Tikal was surprised to hear that. "Really? Then why are you taking me?"

"I've told you. Because you're a better friend to me than anyone else I know."

Tikal smiled when she heard that. She never got tired of hearing how much he valued her friendship.

"Why did you bring me out here, Shadow?" she asked curious.

"Well…I've taken you to a lot of places. And I remember on our first date that I showed you the sunset on the beach. But there's one thing you have to see that I have seen many times before." Shadow replied.

Now Tikal was anxious to see what he had planned. She just had to ask to see if he would tell.

"And what would that be?"

"Just look out that way. It should be here in about five minutes."

That was the only response the black hedgehog gave. And it only made Tikal more impatient to see what the whole thing was all about. She walked across the deck of the boat to the very tip of the bow and looked out to the horizon. She had no idea what she was looking for. But then she saw a dim shade of light start to appear over the water's edge.

Right then and there, she figured out what this was. She had seen the sunset plenty of times. But she had never seen a sunrise before. Never with her own eyes had she seen the tip of the sun poke out over the horizon. As she turned back to smile at Shadow, she saw that he had walked up to her so he could look with her. The orange light of the planet's main source of heat and light grew brighter and brighter until finally, the rounded edge of the sun itself revealed itself.

Tikal narrowed her eyed as the brightness grew to a point where she couldn't look without hurting her eyes. Shadow had prepared for that. He had brought her a pair of very dark sunglasses meant just for things like this. Tikal put them on and then she smiled as she was able to watch the sun again. Shadow put on his own glasses and then he watched the sun with her.

Watching the sun rise brought back memories for Shadow. He had seen this many times. But truth be told, this was the first time in a long time he had paid any attention to the beauty of it all. He had seen this many times from above the planet's atmosphere on Space Colony ARK. He and Maria watched it every day. Sometimes twice a day depending on where the ARK was in orbit. But watching it here, being right in front of the sun as if to say hello when it reveals itself over the ocean, it was definitely something else.

But yet, he felt so much as if it were the same. He watched the sunrise with Maria, and now here he was watching it with Tikal, the girl who reminded him of Maria.

"_Love her for who she is. Not for whom she reminds you of."_

Rouge's words played back in his head like a scratched record album. And as much as Shadow hated to admit it, the bat was right. There just had to be a difference between the two girls. He wanted so badly to find a difference. But then…as he watched the sun rise…Shadow found it.

Maria was a human. And Shadow was a hedgehog created by her grandfather. If he had actually gone up to her and said that he loved her, Maria would have rejected him and wanted to stay friends. She would have never returned feelings like that. It just wouldn't have worked.

But Tikal was right here. She was still alive and Shadow had a chance to be happy with her. And he knew that she felt something towards him. But whether it was friendship or something more, he was going to find that out.

The sun rose up higher and higher into the sky illuminating it and giving it the blue color everyone knew so well. The two of them stood there admiring the light for nearly an hour. It was now 7:00 AM.

Shadow nervously rose up his hand. He wanted to put his arm around Tikal. But would she reject him and simply brush it off? There was only one way to find out. Slowly but surely, his black and red arm stretched behind the girl's neck and then his hand rested on her right shoulder.

Tikal, a little surprised by this, looked at his hand. Yep. It was his hand. She knew the bracelets he wore. Then her smile grew a bit. And then she returned the favor. She rested her head on Shadow's shoulder and wrapped both her arms around him in a hugging style. But she didn't squeeze him like Shadow had anticipated. No. She gently held him close to her. This gave Shadow the okay to do the same. And he did. He put his other arm around her and held her in the same fashion she had him in.

"_Oh yeah. She's different. Maria NEVER held me like that."_

That convinced Shadow that he was ready to confess his feelings. But not right at this very second. He managed out of Tikal's embrace and told her to stay there. Tikal nodded and Shadow walked down to the lower deck. A few minutes later, he came back up with what appeared to be a tray in his hands. It was covered with a large dome lid.

"What's that?" That was the only question Tikal had.

"You didn't think I was going to make you starve, did you?"

Shadow took off the lid and unveiled a large assortment of breakfast food. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, cinnamon rolls, juice, the whole shebang.

"Where did all of this come from?" Tikal asked wanting to know if he made it himself.

"I had Rose and the bunny whip this up last night. My ears are still ringing from that squeal of hers." Shadow replied.

Tikal made that confused face of hers.

"Squeal?"

"When I told them about my plans for this gate, Rose screamed so loud it shattered all of the windows in the rabbit's house, and I was temporarily deaf."

"Amy really does love romance. Doesn't she?" Tikal asked with a giggle.

Shadow put the tray down on the table of the deck and sat down.

"Love it? She's OBSESSED with it. She's even got this delusion in her head that she and Sonic will one day be married." Shadow was obviously skeptical about those two.

"Anything can happen, Shadow." Tikal said as she sat down across from the hedgehog.

The two of them commenced eating, but they were still completely oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.

**(Mystic Ruins; Tails' House; 7:10 AM)**

Sonic and Amy had given Tails a heads up about this early morning date the previous night. And the fox tried desperately to get the Chaotix to do surveillance. But all three of them refused to do anything that early in the morning. And Tails had no hidden cameras onboard Shadow's boat. And that unfortunately left Tails with only one option. He had to hack into GUN again and use their satellite. Sonic and Amy were the ones who suggested it and Tails immediately rejected the notion.

"NO! No no no! Do you not remember the terms we had agreed to a few weeks ago?" Tails demanded.

"We remember, Tails." Sonic replied. "But this time it won't really be hacking."

"Really? And how do you figure that?" Tails asked.

"I asked Rouge to give me her username and password for her access into GUN. So you won't have to bypass any firewalls or anything like that." Sonic answered with a confident grin.

"But they can still trace the access point to my computer!" Tails argued. "We had a deal!"

Amy snarled at the fox and stomped up to him to whisper in his ear.

"Either you do this or I'll tell Cream about that picture you have of her underneath your pillow." She hissed.

Tails froze up so much he couldn't even blink. His fur also transitioned from its golden yellow, to a pale white.

"You…you know about that?" he asked quietly.

"I've seen you kiss it before you go to sleep at night."

Tails felt his heart skip a beat out of total nervousness. How did Amy even know about that photo?

"I hate you so much right now." He said out loud.

"Just get to your computer."

Tails nodded and regained himself as he rushed over to his computer. Sonic and Amy walked up behind him and the blue one looked at his opponent in this bet.

"What did you say to him?" he asked.

Amy smirked a bit evilly. "He's an 8 year old boy. He's afraid of girls more than prison."

Sonic had to agree with that. He's seen Tails around girls. But enough on that. Sonic gave Tails Rouge's username and password.

The username was Rouge's full name of course: Rouge the Bat. The password was: Rougethejewel. All one word.

"Rouge the jewel? Man she's full of herself." Amy observed.

Tails was soon in GUN's system with full access. He accessed the surveillance satellite program and locked onto the coordinates of where Shadow's boat was. The screen quickly produced a live video image of him and Tikal eating on board the deck.

"When did Shadow even get a boat?" Sonic wondered.

"He asked me to help him build it a few days after he defeated Black Doom. I was nervous to be around him at first but in the time we spent building it, he was actually calmer than I had anticipated." Tails explained.

"Well how do you like that?" Amy said to Sonic. "Shadow's a hedgehog like you are, but he's not afraid of water."

"Me and him are very VERY different, Ames." Sonic defended himself.

"What if I win this bet? Are you not going to take me out on the water for a romantic boat date?"

"If by some freak coincidence you DO win this bet, I'll take you on a date no doubt. But I'm not going anywhere near any body of water whether it be the ocean or some stupid water park."

"Hmph. Some of the most beautiful places are near water." Amy complained.

"Trust me. I've seen my fair share of beautiful places. You'd see em' too if you traveled as much as I do."

"I can't run at the speed of sound."

"Guys! Can we get back to watching them in silence so we can hear them?" Tails snapped them out of it.

"Fine." Both hedgehogs agreed.

Meanwhile on the Maria, Shadow and Tikal had just finished breakfast and the hedgehog took all the dirty dishes down to the lower deck to be placed in the sink. When he came back up, he found Tikal running her fingers across the captain's wheel. Shadow joined her.

"Go ahead. Grab it." He told her.

Tikal wasn't sure. It wasn't her boat. She thought it wouldn't be right. But Shadow insisted. She slowly grabbed the pikes of the wheel and held them firm.

Shadow watched her look out to the front as she actually steered the ship. The breeze made her dreadlocks move around gently. She looked so beautiful.

"_It's now or never, Shadow! You're the Ultimate Lifeform! You can do this!"_

"Hey uh Tikal?"

"Yes?" she looked back at him with that gorgeous smile of hers.

"There's something I want to say to you that I've never said to anyone before."

"And what would that be, Shadow?"

"Tikal…I…"

***BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!***

He was so close. But an interruption came in the form of an explosion. It wasn't from the boat. But it was near where they were. They just didn't know where exactly.

Back at Tails' house, they all heard it too. Tails zoomed out away from the boat so he could get a better view of the area. And then from an aerial view, he saw smoke coming from Angel Island. He zoomed in on where the big boom was and unfortunately, the very familiar fat man himself was there in one of his robot creations, with a horde of robot drones marching behind him.

"Let's go, Tails!" Sonic rushed to where the Tornado was and hopped on the wing.

Tails hopped into the pilot's seat and Amy sat right behind him. The propeller started to spin and then the plane took off for Angel Island.

Back on the Maria, Tikal and Shadow were looking up at Angel Island and saw the smoke coming from it.

"That's where the Master Emerald is." Tikal knew exactly what area of the island was pouring smoke. "We have to do something!"

Shadow's face returned. The face that most of his friends knew had finally returned to him after a long period of absence. His scowl and his angry eyes.

"It must be Doctor Eggman." He said as he brought out his Chaos Emerald. "I'll go see what's up."

"Wait!"

Tikal grabbed his arm.

"I want to come with you!"

"It's too dangerous, Tikal. Please, stay here."

"Angel Island is my home, Shadow. Don't you think for a second that I'm staying here."

Shadow had no opposing argument for that. He couldn't win this argument. So his hands were tied.

"Alright. Come here." He said.

Tikal wrapped her arms around Shadow just like she had done earlier. And that only made Shadow even angrier.

"_Damn you, Eggman! I was so close! As soon as this fight is over, I'll tell her. If I don't kill him and scare her off that is."_

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

It was decided right there that Shadow would have to come back for the boat as he and Tikal warped off of it. Nobody had any clue what was Eggman was doing on the island, but getting him off was going to be the hard part.

**Tails: Wait a minute. You're going to add a fight scene to this story?**

**Me: Of course. Why not?**

**Shadow: YES! BADASSERY RETURNS! You are going to make me a badass, right AK?**

**Me: Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. We'll see.**

**Knuckles: What about me? Do I get to be a badass?**

**Amy: Why are you even bringing in a fight scene? You've never done that for this kind of story.**

**Me: That's exactly why. I'm very good at action scenes. You don't believe me? Read the AutoKnights. And I swear the next chapter will be awesome. Until then, peace bitches.**


	13. The Other Side

**I don't do openers or closers for fight scenes anymore. They would just ruin the whole mood that a fight scene is supposed to have. So I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other characters from there. They're all owned by ****SEGA****. **

**Enjoy the fight scene. And I tried to make it as awesome as I could. Oh yeah and…you remember Shades? That's Shadow's special AK-47 as described in chapter 6. It's coming back.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 13: The Other Side**

**(Angel Island; 7:45 AM)**

Dr. Eggman. The most evil person on the planet who defines the very word, "despicable". He hadn't been heard from in quite a while actually. To be precise, he had disappeared after the whole Black Doom thing. That was a couple months ago. He had never lain low this long before. But now the time limit had ceased to tick for here he was on Angle Island with an army of Egg Pawns ready to march and destroy.

The robot Eggman himself was in was a new model of his. It was a giant red colored robotic spider with eight legs and everything. There were eight red lit up eyes each of them looking in different directions. It had a big robotic mouth with a couple of razor sharp grinders for teeth inside. At the end of each leg was a claw for more effective walking. Right in the center of the body, was Eggman at the controls. He stopped when he saw his target up at the top of the stone shrine.

The Master Emerald.

That explosion from before was a missile launched from one of the legs to try and take out Knuckles before Eggman actually showed up to try and avoid the echidna's fist attacks. The missile had hit the ground right in front of the shrine. Eggman was firing from within the trees of the forest so his aim wasn't that accurate. But it was the perfect shot to get Knuckles angry.

The echidna knew only Eggman attacked with missiles. Clenching his fists as the huge robotic spider emerged from the tree line with an army surrounding him, Knuckles jumped down the stairs of the shrine and got ready to fight. Rouge flew in above him ready to do the same thing.

"What do you suppose he's after?" Rouge asked.

"The only thing here is the Master Emerald. Either he wants it for himself, or he wants to destroy it and make the island fall." Knuckles stated the only two logical reasons.

"I'll take choice number one, Knucklehead!" Eggman heard everything he had said and was now speaking off of an intercom built into his giant spider. "Searching for the Chaos Emeralds is a waste of time when I can simply take the most powerful Emerald alone. I'll be able to create an army so big not even all of your friends combined will have a chance!"

"You'll never get your hands on it! I'll give the Master Emerald to Rouge before I give it to you!" Knuckles yelled.

Rouge was flattered by that to say the least.

"If you want to fight, than bring it on! Egg Pawns! ATTACK!"

Eggman gave the order and the robots charged the shrine at five per group out of a total army of five hundred or so. Yes, Eggman came prepared.

Knuckles and Rouge already had their weapons armed and ready. Knuckles tightened his spurred gloves and Rouge pulled up on her boots a bit so her toes were touching the tip. She got more effect with her kicks that way.

The two of them charged as well to defend the Master Emerald…and their house which was right next to the shrine and was therefore in a potential line of fire. Knuckles jumped forward and threw out his right fist. And in the process of doing that, he drove his fist right into an Egg Pawn and completely obliterated it. Then more robots came up to him and they didn't even have a prayer. Knuckles was able to punch their lights out. Literally.

Then Eggman gave another order. And then even more robots started to gang up on Knuckles. The echidna now had to move faster in order to keep up with them all. But relief for that problem came when Rouge swooped down and performed her trademark Screw Kick attack taking out five Pawns with one shot. Once she stopped spinning, she flew over and landed right behind Knuckles. Now the two of them were back to back fending off the Pawns.

"So would you really give me the Master Emerald over Eggman?" Rouge had a tendency to talk in situations that didn't really call for it.

But Knuckles didn't mind. Breaking simple robot drones was hardly considered a fight to him.

"Of course I would. And it's already half yours already in a way. You're my girlfriend after all." Knuckles replied.

Rouge just had to stop.

"Aaaaawwwwww."

She turned around, made Knuckles turn around, and gave him a fat kiss with those devil red lips of hers. Knuckles was going to pull away due to the many robots surround them with orders to kill them, but then he felt her tongue enter his mouth and move around. He was overcome by that and closed his eyes.

As the robots neared, they became within grabbing range. But the two treasure hunters parted just in time. Knuckles grabbed Rouge's hands and then he swung her around and around in circles, giving Rouge the ability to kick and break every single robot within range, widening the circle again. Robots were sent flying into trees, some broke with one kick, and some were even hit with enough force they flew right off the edge of the island.

As Knuckles stopped spinning his girlfriend, he heard a noise. He thought it was Eggman's robot spider doing something, but then he heard the fain sound of a propeller.

"Sonic's here." Rouge said.

Knuckles smirked and looked up. And indeed, there was Sonic on the wing of the Tornado piloted by Tails and Amy in the passenger seat. The blue hedgehog jumped off spindashed straight down to clear the way of any robots. He did that little job in about 3 seconds if not less. But he saw more drones approaching when he stopped spinning.

"Sonic, you take care of Eggman. We've got the metal heads." Knuckles said as he gave his namesake a good cracking.

Sonic made that ever so popular smirk of his.

"Alright. Good luck, you two." Sonic jumped over the oncoming robots and landed himself right in front of Eggman's machine. "Nice bot, Doc! But no matter how many legs you put on a robot, they still won't be enough to keep up with my two."

"We'll see about that, hedgehog! I came here for the Master Emerald and that's it! But if you want to get in my way, I'd be more than happy to cut off those spines of yours with my Egg Tarantula!"

"Let's kick it up, Eggman!" Sonic jumped and spindashed right for the center of the robot.

But that did nothing at all. Sonic bounced off the shell of the robot without even leaving the tiniest dent. The smirk turned into a scowl as he now tried to think up a strategy. But when he saw the giant arachnid pick up a giant tree with one of its legs, he thought up the only strategy he could think of: think while running.

And that's what he did. Eggman threw the tree at him and Sonic easily ran away from it. He ran in circles slowly around Eggman so he could process better. As he did, Eggman kept trying to squash the blue one with the many legs of his spider. Then one of the legs let loose a blast of fire. That leg had a built in flamethrower and it scorched a bunch of trees instead of a hedgehog.

"He's going to burn up the forest!" Knuckles cried in fear of his island.

But then the flames died down mysteriously. Eggman didn't have a clue what was going on, but Sonic did.

"_I only know one person who can do that with fire."_

His hunch turned out to be right when he saw the purple cat rush into sight with her hands lit up in her own flames. Silver hovered down next to her with his whole body surrounded in his cyan telekinetic energy. Eggman threw another one of his giant legs at the couple from the future. Silver raised his hands and then the le was lit up in a cyan glow. Silver then concentrated even more power and then half of the whole freakin robot lit up. The albino hedgehog pushed the robot enough to force it off of its balance and thud on the ground.

"You guys can sure make an entrance." Sonic said as he zipped over to them.

"Looks like we got here just in time." Silver lowered himself and turned off his psychokinesis.

"What's he after?" Blaze asked.

"From what I heard, he wants the Master Emerald. And we can't let him get it." Sonic explained. "Blaze, you help Knuckles and Rouge take care of the robots. Silver, you and I will take on Eggman together."

Silver and Blaze both nodded and then the former went off to Knuckles and Rouge. Silver stayed with Sonic. Now it was two hedgehogs against the doctor. As Eggman got back up, he immediately took notice of silver.

"Who are you?" He hadn't seen him enough times to remember who he was.

"Just someone who hates you like everyone else in the world." Silver replied.

"Is that so?" Eggman sneered. "Well, I assure this will be the last time we meet."

From the top of the Egg Tarantula's body, multiple missile holes opened up and eight missiles in total fired out of them and went right for the two hedgehogs.

Silver's hands, wrist cuffs, and boot cuffs glowed even more a brighter cyan than they already were as the hedgehog focused his power on the oncoming missiles. All eight of them started to glow as well. Silver's original plan was to make them turn around and impact into the robot that launched them. But there were too many for him to make that happen. Although he has the power to move anything he wants to with his mind, he can only move so much at a time without it being too heavy for him to carry. So he came up with a plan B.

He made the missiles go off course just enough to make them all collide into each other. That plan was successful. It created a big enough explosion to temporarily blind Eggman and make him lose sight of Sonic and Silver. When the smoke vanished, they were gone and Eggman immediately started to look around for them. He found out where they were when Sonic spindashed into him and Silver threw a tree onto the robot with his psychic powers. Sonic was on the ground running and Silver was flying again picking up whatever he could to launch at Eggman.

Up in the air, Tails was making multiple swoops right above the fight sight taking fore upon every robot drone that was within his plane's range. As he made another swoop down, he passed over them and took out another row off Egg Pawns.

Rouge, Knuckles, and Blaze were completely surrounded and taking them all out as they came. Knuckles punched, Rouge kicked, and Blaze scorched. It seemed to be an endless cycle. One at a time, a robot approached them, and one of the three in the group took it out. It seemed stupid, but in fact it was brilliant. If they only came in small doses at a time, it would make the whole thing last longer and more of their energy would be used up to the point where they couldn't put up a fight anymore. And it was working too. Slowly but surely, Knuckles, Rouge, and Blaze were running out of juice.

"Damn. I can't keep this up." Rouge panted and clutched her chest.

"I really hate to admit this, but we could really use Shadow right about now." Knuckles huffed as he too caught his breath.

A few hundred yards away from all of this, Shadow WAS indeed there. He and Tikal were ducking down, hiding in the bushes of the island and watching.

"What's going on, Shadow?" Tikal was certainly interested in why there was a whole robot army intruding on her home island.

"It seems Dr. Eggman is after that Master Emerald of Knuckles'." That was pretty much obvious to everyone now.

"We can't let him get it!" The girl cried.

"Don't worry. I won't let anything fall into his hands." Shadow stood up.

"Where are you going?" Tikal asked worried.

"I'm going to go and help them." Shadow replied. "Usually I wouldn't and stay out of it, but the stakes are too high this time around."

"But Shadow…you could get hurt."

Shadow looked into her eyes. It looked like the outer edges were showing the formation of tears. Shadow had never seen anyone show concern for him. It was all so new to him. Someone telling him NOT to fight. He wasn't really sure what to do here. Of all the things he had done for Tikal, or anyone for that matter, he had never comforted anyone. Not even Maria.

"Listen." He kneeled down and gently grasped her hand. "I promise you. I'll be alright. But I need you to stay here and out of sight. Can you do that for me?"

Tikal squeezed his hand tightly signifying her objection against the whole thing even more. But her island was in danger. The Master Emerald was in danger. She had to let him go.

"Please be careful." She threw her arms around him and squeezed tightly.

Shadow gently hugged her back and stood back up again. Then he dashed off on his rocket skates towards the scene of the battle. He looked back to where she was and took a deep breath. There was no way he wanted her to get anywhere near this.

Now Knuckles, Rouge, and Blaze were running on fumes here. They only had a few more strikes left in them and that was pretty much it.

"Well, we're pretty screwed here." Knuckles gasped out. "I love you, Rouge."

Knuckles thought those were going to be his last words. But then gunshots were heard and all the Egg Pawns turned around.

Shadow was there and he had Shades in his hand. The tip of the barrel was smoking from the shots he fired to get their attention. His eyes were angry and the snarl on his mouth was enough to make the robots identify him as a threat.

"You assholes want some of this?" Shadow cocked Shades. "Bring it."

All of the Egg Pawns charged Shadow at once. But they never stood a chance against him. For crying out loud, he's the Ultimate Lifeform. They wouldn't have had a chance with any other strategy. As they charged the hedgehog, he immediately opened fire and the special bullets from inside the mag hailed on them like the storm of bullets it was. Shadow moved the gun from side to side very slowly. The robots didn't have enough time to surround him. In less than thirty seconds, Shadow had shot all of the robots and they were offline. And his mag was out of bullets.

Knuckles, Rouge, and Blaze approached him.

"Thanks for the rescue, Shadow." Blaze said politely.

"Wait a minute." Knuckles was the first to notice. "If you're here, where's Tikal?"

Shadow looked to the right and pointed.

"She's hiding in the bushes on the top of that hill. Make sure she stays there." He instructed.

"What are you going to do?" Rouge asked.

"Me, Sonic, and Silver can take care of Eggman ourselves. You guys just stay back and enjoy the show."

The three of them weren't sure about it at first, but it was kind of impossible to argue with him after the performance he just gave with his favorite gun ever. They complied without question and headed to where Tikal was. Once they found her, she stood back up and viewed the fight.

Sonic and Silver were pretty much on the defensive now. Sonic was dodging bullets shot by the multiple spider legs, and Silver was doing his best trying to deflect them all with his own two hands. They needed a strategy, but the problem was they were too occupied trying to evade attacks to think one up.

But their help came in the form of a yellow streak tackling into the center of the robot knocking it down to the ground yet again. Shadow revealed himself to be the attacker as he was still in mid-air and his hands glowed yellow.

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

Multiple yellow bolts of raw Chaos energy shot out of Shadow's hands as he swung them horizontally in front of himself. The spears exploded on the metal body of the robot and Shadow landed nicely on his feet next to Sonic.

"I was wondering if you were going to show up, faker." Sonic commented.

"Never mind that. Have you located any weak points?" Shadow asked in his infamous deep chill of a voice.

"None that we can see. If you want to try and find one, be my guest." Silver said.

"I intend to. He interrupted my date." Shadow replied.

This was news for Silver he turned off his power accidentally and almost fell down. But he managed to save himself right before he hit the ground and went over to his striped friend.

"Wait? A date? No offense Shadow. But who in their right mind would go on a date with you?" Silver's skepticism was off the charts in a matter like this.

"Hold up a sec." Sonic dashed over to the two hedgehogs and joined them. He looked at Silver. "You mean all this time you've had no clue that Shadow and Tikal have been going out? Where've you and Blaze been?"

"We've been at Emerald Coast. On vacation. We told you that." Silver replied. "WAIT! TIKAL? Shadow is dating that nice echidna girl?"

"You say that as if it were a crime." Shadow growled. "I like her."

Silver looked back at Sonic. "You meant to tell me that Blaze has been calling you guys to say hello and she's asked, what's new?' None of you ever thought to go with, 'Shadow's dating an actual girl?"

"We're sorry we kept you out of the loop, Silver. But can we disregard Shadow's love life for now and get back to the problem at hand?" Sonic asked.

"Oh right."

Silver had almost forgotten where he was and why he was there. Just as the three hedgehogs got ready to attack, the Egg Tarantula got back up.

"So now there are THREE hedgehogs? Why can't I ever get something else? I HATE hedgehogs!" Eggman shouted.

"We hate you too, fatass!" Sonic shouted back. "Hedgehogs! Spin it up!"

Yes. Silver too had learned how to spindash from Sonic. He was fairly good at it. All three hedgehogs began spinning and headed straight for Eggman. Three legs of the Egg Tarantula rose up. One for each hedgehog. All three of them were swatted away but they managed to maneuver themselves in mid-fall so they would land on their feet. It wasn't their smoothest landing but they made it on their shoes.

"Silver! Can you hold that entire thing in place?" Shadow called.

"I…I can try." Silver said with obvious uncertainty in his voice.

Silver was halfway tired. But he was always determined to stop evil. His mind began to focus everything it had on the Egg Tarantula. But nothing was happening. The giant robot spider began to get closer and closer to the shrine of the Master Emerald. Sonic and Shadow were just starring at Silver who was openly showing signs of struggling as Eggman was now right in front of the giant green gemstone.

"Ah. Who needs those stupid Chaos Emeralds when the power to control them all is right here in front of me?" Eggman cockily smirked and made one of the front arms extend its claw and reach for the Master Emerald.

It was less than a foot away. And then it froze up. Everything on the giant piece of machinery froze up. Eggman tried everything to get the thing moving again but something was stopping him. He soon realized what it was when he saw the dim glow of cyan psychic energy radiating off of the arm that was in front of him.

Silver was still struggling, but he had succeeded in bringing the entire spider to a halt.

"Hurry up and destroy it! I can't keep this up for much longer!" Silver yelled to Sonic and Shadow.

"I don't suppose you have another Chaos Emerald besides the green one, do you?" Sonic asked Shadow.

"Sorry." Shadow replied simply.

"Then I guess you're on." Sonic walked to the side and Shadow nodded to him.

The black and red hedgehog reached behind him and pulled out his Chaos Emerald and shouted the magic words.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

Shadow vanished and Eggman was now in fear for his life. He knew all too well what would happen if Shadow got angry enough. Before he could think on, the spider's outer shell exploded in multiple areas at once. That was obviously Shadow's work. Then Shadow reappeared so he could finish it off in normal time-flow.

Back with Tikal, she was watching both in worry for Shadow, and in surprise. She had been told by him what he had done in his past. But she had never seen him like this before. He was so…destructive. Angry. Violent.

But despite all that, it wasn't Shadow that had the girl worried. It was her reason for coming here in the first place. She had wanted to live on this world in peace and quiet. But this whole fight seemed to be a huge wake up call for her. This world is full of violence. And it won't know true peace for a long time. Not so long as Eggman still lives. And it would be years before that ends. Now she was feeling something that she hadn't felt ever before in her life. Regret.

Back with Shadow he was just about to deliver the final spindash right to the center of the robot to finish it off. But Eggman made one last move. He shut off the power to his robot and turned it back on again. When he did that, all the parts began to move again and Silver finally lost his grip. He passed out and fell flat on his face from using up so much power. Sonic rushed over to him and gently tried to shake him awake.

Shadow was in mind-air heading right for the mouth of the Egg Tarantula so he could go all the way through it. But Eggman was able to stop him. He grabbed the hedgehog with another claw around his torso and started to squeeze. The only thing Shadow could do was kick his legs and squirm his wrists.

"SHADOW!"

He heard Tikal's voice. He had promised her that he would be safe, but that was being doubted now. Shadow growled as he tried even harder to jerk his way out of Eggman's grip. And the doctor himself was grinning. Having Shadow within his grip was a bit more satisfying than Sonic. Shadow had turned against Eggman ever since Black Doom was killed. So he figured it was time Shadow paid the price. Eggman knew that like Sonic, Shadow could not swim. He turned the bot around and slowly started to head for the edge of the island.

Sonic was still trying to get Silver awake. And he finally got a response when Silver's eyes squeezed tighter and then he rubbed his forehead.

"Whoa. I'm never carrying that much when I'm not in my Super Form again." He moaned.

"Welcome back, buddy. Do you have enough power to move anything yet?" Sonic immediately asked.

Silver sat back up.

"Something small, maybe. Why?"

"That's why." Sonic pointed up and behind Silver.

Silver turned around and saw Shadow being carried off by Eggman.

"Sonic if you want me to try and stop Eggman again, you're crazy."

"No." Sonic had something else on his mind completely. "I want you to get Shadow's bracelets off. If he can unleash all his power in one blow, he can end this thing right now."

"Oh." That was actually a very good plan.

Sonic picked Silver up and carried him so they were right underneath Shadow. Silver raised up one of his hands. It was a bit harder for him to do this since he was tired but he kept on going.

Shadow was still trying to jerk free of the robotic death grip but then he stopped when he felt like something was moving on his wrists. He looked down and saw his inhibitor ring bracelets were glowing cyan and jiggling free of his wrists. Then, they popped off. And Shadow smirked a bit too evil looking as he glared at Eggman.

Shadow's body started to glow red all over. Eggman knew what was coming and began to sweat. Shadow began to snarl and breathe more deeply as he began to gain more power. He was charging up Chaos Blast.

He had never used it before when his bracelets were off. And that made him more worried because of all the negative energy that was about to be unleashed.

That's how Chaos Blast worked. Shadow had to focus on every negative memory and emotion he had ever experienced and turn them into power. Chaos Blast was one hundred percent negative energy. So only negative thoughts could trigger it. That's why Shadow never told Tikal the full details of the attack. He knew she would disapprove.

"Chaos…

Eggman's sweatdrops were now the size of soccer balls.

"…BLAST!"

Tails and Amy were still airborne in the Tornado. The fox was keeping his eyes on the sky, but when he saw what happened on the Island, his attention was immediately diverted. A huge red half-sphere of red energy was growing larger and larger but it was out of range of the shrine. Out of the smoke, Eggman flew away screaming in his Egg-Mobile with no control over the machine as he went higher into the sky until he vanished.

The energy sphere vanished and Tails landed the plane and he and Amy hoped out and ran over to where the explosion took place. They met up with Knuckles, Tikal, Rouge, and everyone else as they reached the sight. Most of the trees within the radius had been completely destroyed. All the remaining ones were on fire. But Blaze took care of that with a simple wave of her hand and the flames went away.

In the middle of it all, Shadow was standing there putting his bracelets back on. And there was nothing left of Eggman's robot.

Tikal thought she would be happy to see that Shadow was alright, she WAS, but that wasn't the major feeling in her head right now. She thought this world, that her coming her would mean she would finally escape the violent memories of her past life with her father. But watching Shadow destroy that robot with such ease brought them all back into her head. She was scared. And she had now seen a side of Shadow that she never knew existed before. He had disclosed everything about his past, but there were no visual aids. She never thought THIS could ever happen.

Shadow approached her.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Shadow reached out to put his hand on her shoulder. But Tikal back up and he missed.

"What's wrong?" he asked another one.

Tikal backed up even more, and then she turned around and ran away to Knuckles' and Rouge's place.

Shadow tried to run after her, but Rouge stopped him.

"Stay here. I'll talk to her."

Rouge went off leaving Shadow with a hurt look on his face. All of them were waiting outside the house waiting for Rouge to come back out. Ten minutes later, she did and asked to speak to Shadow alone.

The rest of them went inside and Rouge stayed out with Shadow.

"What's going on?" Shadow asked.

"She's scared, Shadow." Rouge replied. "I'm just as surprised to hear this as you are, but you scared her."

"I scared her? How is that possible? I told her that I had done things like that in the past and she was fine with it."

"Yes you did. But the thing is, she thought you were done with it."

Shadow froze. He should have seen that one coming.

"Shadow, you may have stopped Eggman from stealing the emerald, but at the same time, Tikal saw your dark side. And that scares everyone."

"I have to talk to her and make things right." Shadow tried to go for the front door.

"She doesn't want to see you right now." Rouge said. "And I think you should respect her wishes."

"But she has to know what she saw back there is not who I am."

Rouge sighed. This was difficult. She thought Tikal would be a bit more understanding than this.

"Look, I'm not gonna say I know how you feel, because I don't. But I'm positive Tikal just needs some space. Give it a few days. I'll talk to her. I promise." Rouge tried to make Shadow feel a little bit better.

It wasn't enough to make Shadow feel better, but it was enough to convince him to back off.

"I really care about her, Rouge. Please tell her that."

With that, Shadow walked off and everyone else came outside with the exception of Tikal. All of them felt sorry for him. The only relationship he ever had was now put in jeopardy. But the looming question was:

Would it work out?


	14. Back to Square One

**Me: YAAAAAHHHHOOOOOOOO!**

**Shadow: What's up with you?**

**Vector: Yeah. No, "hey bitches" this time around?**

**Me: Screw that! The Giants are going to the World Series!**

**Blaze: Wait. What?**

**Me: The San Francisco Giants are going to the World Series of Major League Baseball. CELEBRATION!**

**Cream: But I thought you lived in Fresno, Mr. AK.**

**Me: I do, Cream. I'm even in Fresno right now. But there are no major league teams that play here. So we have to choose one of many that play in the whole state.**

**Amy: How many teams are there in this state?**

**Me: Well Amy, this is California. One of the few states with more than one major league team. But we have more than two to choose from. Take New York for example. They have the Yankees and the Mets. Hell. Illinois has the Cubs and the White Sox. **

**But here in California, we have oh…one two three four FIVE! Five teams. The Giants which are my team, the Oakland A's, LA Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and the Anaheim Angels. So when it comes to major league baseball, it's a frickin civil war over here on the west side.**

**Sonic: Damn. **

**Me: Exactly. But enough about baseball. Let's get to the reason why we're all here. Who's up for the disclaimer? NOT IT!**

**Everyone: NOT IT!**

**Espio: Very well then. AK only owns the plot of this story. He doesn't own any of the characters.**

**Me: So enjoy chapter 14 and review afterwards if you like.**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 14: Back to Square One**

Three days had passed ever since the fight. And in that time, Shadow and Tikal hadn't seen each other at all as to her wishes. And that greatly upset the dark hedgehog. He had no intention of ever frightening her. He was just trying to save the island AND the Master Emerald. He had succeeded in doing that, but now the one person he had gotten close to was now locking herself away from him in Knuckles' and Rouge's house.

No one had seen Shadow in the time span of those three days. But it didn't take a genius to k now what he was doing. He was avoiding everyone with the exception of trying to see Tikal and explain himself. But every time, he failed. Rouge and Knuckles just sent him away. He had seen Maria die in front of him, but to even his own surprise, this felt a lot worse for Shadow. He knew the girl was alive, but he still couldn't see her. And that killed him. It actually made his heart ache moth metaphorically and literally. And when someone tried to talk to him, he sent them away with Chaos Control. What a shock.

No one else had any idea what to do. Rouge had tried her hardest to get Tikal to understand what happened. All the echidna could remember was all the destruction Shadow had caused with that Chaos Blast. He was ruthless, unstoppable, those were the things Tikal had come to this world to get away from in the first place. All the violence brought her flashbacks what happened that day her father and his troops attacked the shrine all those years ago to take the Master Emerald for themselves. She thought maybe if she came here to a point where she wouldn't have to worry about anything like that ever again, she would be happy. But she was proven wrong in less than a second. She had seen Shadow come up to the door, but when she did, she ran upstairs and hid from him while Knuckles or Rouge made him go away.

Needless to say, Shadow as right back where he started almost two months ago. Depressed and alone. And speaking of two months time, the time limit for the bet between Sonic and Amy was almost up. It was going to be over in less than 24 hours. And the chances were now overwhelmingly in Sonic's favor. But now Sonic was beginning to have second thought. Not about dating Amy. He still feared that. What he was having second thoughts about was his opinion of his dark doppelganger. Maybe he was wrong. He had watched every single one of his dates from the beginning. And he had to admit it. Shadow had been happy ever since he started seeing Tikal.

The blue hedgehog himself was inside his house sitting around alone with nothing but his thoughts, which he was focused on the most. But then his phone rang.

"Hello?...Oh what's up Rouge?...What?...Wait hold up. What do you mean? When?...Well, does Shadow know?...Why not?...Oh right. Well he SHOULD know. She was closest to him."

Rouge said something to him that lasted a good minute and then Sonic began to think again.

"Okay. I'll be there at midnight. Bye."

Sonic hung up the phone and now he was thinking out loud.

"Midnight? That's only twelve hours from now."

His phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sonic."

The voice sounded familiar, but there was a certain peppy tone that was missing from it.

"Amy? Are you alright?"

"I'm not sure. Rouge just called me."

Okay. Now Sonic knew why she was down.

"So you just got the news to huh?"

"Yep. And I bet you're planning a party already." She sounded a bit cross on that one.

"Wait. What?"

"You know what's gonna happen now and I'm sure you're thrilled about it. I just called to say, congratulations, and I'll see you in a month."

Amy slammed her phone down which made a loud click on Sonic's end. Sonic slowly hung his phone up too. Maybe it was just an overreaction on Amy's part. But still, Sonic couldn't blame her. That call from Rouge was pretty much a call saying that victory for him in the matter of this bet was unavoidable.

But we all know the kind of person Sonic truly is at heart. And he wasn't about to let this be over so fast. Even if it meant him succumbing to defeat.

"Ah…damn it all to the Sonic blue blazes of hell!"

Sonic rushed out his door and began to run.

And for the first time in his whole life, Sonic ran for hours straight looking for someone other than Dr. Eggman. He was looking for his rival. By the time he stopped to take a breather, it was 7:00 PM and the stars were starting to fill the sky. Yes. Sonic ran that far for that long. And to look for Shadow of all people. He had looked everywhere he thought he could be. When he looked up at the stars once again, he screeched to a halt and slapped his forehead.

"_How could I be so stupid?"_

Sonic turned right around and headed for a place he knew Shadow liked to be.

The mountain range. Alone.

And his hunch was right. He stopped at the very bottom of the tallest mountain around and looked up. And right in front of the half-destroyed moon of Mobius, there was the silhouette of Shadow. Sonic ran up the mountain and stopped right in front of him.

"Go away, faker." Shadow bluntly said.

"I'm sorry, Shadow. But I can't do that." Sonic responded.

"Fine then. Chaos Control."

Shadow waved his hand and a bright white sphere of light and hit Sonic with it. Sonic vanished and Shadow gave his infamous, hmph.

"That should take care of him for a while."

"A while really isn't a long time anymore."

Shadow jumped at hearing Sonic's voice again when he thought that he had sent him away. But he clutched his chest, turned around, and saw Sonic standing right where he was before.

"I thought I got rid of you."

Sonic just smirked and held in front of him the ruby red Chaos Emerald.

"You forget, Shadow. I can use Chaos Control too."

Shadow growled and turned away from him.

"The only flaw in an otherwise perfect plan."

Sonic put the Emerald away and got back to the reason why he was there in the first place.

"Shadow, I know you're upset about Tikal."

"What business is it to you?" Shadow snapped back.

Sonic actually did have business if he counted the bet. But that's beside the point.

"Shadow, I'm your friend whether you like it or not. Sure you and I have tried to do each other in more than once but we got past that. We're friends. And I'm not about to let you go back to the mopey depressed sac of a hedgehog that everyone isn't fond of."

Shadow growled again.

"Sonic, leave now or I will kick your ass."

Sonic knew that Shadow never joked. But what he had to say was too important. And he wasn't about to let something as stupid as a death threat stop him. He stood calmly in his spot and said two words to Shadow that had never been spoken before after he made a threat to cause pain.

"Go ahead."

That caught Shadow off guard a bit. Usually after he threatens someone they leave immediately.

"I'm serious. I will rip your legs off so you can never run again."

"And I'm standing right here waiting for that to happen."

Sonic was as cool as a cucumber. And Shadow was starting to get pissed off. He tried something else. He held up his wrist with his back still turned and motioned his other hand into position to take off his bracelet.

"Last chance, faker."

"Bring it."

Shadow's head was literally steaming now. He touched the bracelet and started to pull it off. He did just a bit so Sonic would see, but the blue one stood still as if he wanted it to happen. Then Shadow stopped shaking from the anger. He let go of his wrist and let his arm dangle to his sides.

"Congratulations, faker. You called my bluff."

Sonic felt it was now safe to approach Shadow. Which he did. Very slowly.

"Shadow, it doesn't take a genius to know that you're sad about what happened between you and Tikal."

"What would you know about relationships?" Shadow asked crossly. "I've seen you run away from Rose almost every day."

"Okay. I know it might not seem that I know a lot about love, but here's something you don't know about me, Shadow. I WAS in a relationship. It was a few years ago before I met you."

Shadow got hit with yet another surprise. He never would have thought Sonic would be the kind of guy who would EVER be in a relationship.

"You have?"

"Yes." Sonic began to story tell. "Before I moved out to Emerald Hill, I used to live in a city called New Mobotropolis. I was in love with a girl named Sally Acorn who was also the princess destined to be queen when she came of age."

"You were in love with a princess?" Shadow thought Sonic was just exaggerating.

"Yep. It's the truth. She and I were actually very good friends growing up."

Shadow noticed one word out of that sentence.

"Were?"

"I'm getting to that." Sonic went on. "Anyways, about two years ago, she and I were fourteen. And then we started dating. It was the full package. Holding hands, dates, kissing…heck. I even became her royal consort to one day have her hand in marriage."

It was almost as if Shadow couldn't get enough surprises today. But the worst one was yet to come. We'll get to that later.

"You…married?"

"When we turned eighteen, we would have been immediately rushed to the altar." Sonic got ready to wrap it up. "But…things went south. One day, her parents, the king and queen, announced that they would be leaving town for a few days to deal with some political crap. And Sally was left in charge of running the kingdom while they were gone."

"What went wrong?" Shadow asked actually interested.

"She wanted to me to rule by her side. If I did that, I wouldn't have been able to fight Eggman. So I said I couldn't do it. Then she slapped me in the face and stormed off. A week later, I packed up my stuff, moved out here, and I haven't seen her since."

Shadow took a moment to let the information of that story process in his head.

"Was there a reason you just told me that?"

"Yes." Sonic had a good reason. "Shadow, I turned my back on love and I regret it every day. I just can't stand by and watch you do the same."

"If you regret turning your back on love, why do run from Rose?" the ebony hedgehog asked.

"My relationship with Amy has nothing to do with why I'm here."

During that time, Shadow still hadn't turned around to face Sonic.

"What do you want, Sonic?"

"See? THAT'S why I'm here. Because that's what I want to ask you. What do YOU want? And be honest."

Shadow sighed. He wanted so badly just to beat the blue off of Sonic, but he was in no mood to do so. But he needed to talk to someone. And since Sonic was the only one around, what was the alternative.

"I…I don't know." Shadow was actually opening up to Sonic. "I didn't mean to frighten her. I don't understand what I did wrong."

Ah. Now that's hard. Being in a rough patch in a relationship with one person not knowing what went wrong.

"Shadow, I'm sympathetic for you. I really am. But do you want to be with Tikal?"

"I…I just don't want to screw up my second chance."

Sonic made a confused face.

"Second chance? What are you talking about?"

Shadow now turned to face Sonic in his eyes.

"Tikal is almost in every way like Maria. I found that out a few days ago."

"So…" Sonic began to do some math. "All this time, you were dating her just because she reminded you of Maria?"

"What? No! I just told you I only found that out a few days ago! And I've been seeing her for a month!"

"Okay. Calm down." Sonic tried to lower the volume.

Shadow calmed down and took a deep breath. Then Sonic thought of something.

"Okay. Answer me this. Before you realized she was like Maria, why did you continue to see Tikal?"

That didn't require a lot of thinking for Shadow to answer.

"She's peaceful, loving, caring, and honestly…she makes me happy."

Shadow? Happy? That's the first time ever he himself has ever said it.

And that was enough to make Sonic tell the real reason why he was there.

"She's leaving, Shadow."

Now Sonic had Shadow's undivided attention.

"What?"

"Rouge called me a few hours ago. She told me that Tikal had decided to leave and she wanted us all there to say goodbye."

"Leave? Where will she go?" Shadow absolutely wanted to know.

"She's going back into the Master Emerald. Why I don't know."

"But…why didn't Rouge tell me before?"

Sonic rubbed the back of his head.

"Well…that was Tikal's request not to tell you."

Shadow felt like Tikal ran a knife through his heart. To leave and not even tell him? That's just wrong.

"What are you going to do, Shadow?"

Shadow turned back around and looked up at the sky.

"Nothing. If she wants to leave, I will respect her wishes."

Sonic rubbed his forehead and repeated his question from before.

"I know that's what she wants, Shadow. But is that what YOU want?"

Shadow took a moment to think about that. And it didn't take that much of thinking for him to come to his realization.

No. Shadow was nowhere near ready to see her leave. He knew that there was something between them and it didn't matter whether she reminded him of someone else or not. She was still Tikal the Echidna. And he loved her more than anything else in the world.

And he wasn't about to let her leave without telling her that. He wasn't ready to let her leave period.

"No. What I want…is her."

Sonic's smirk came back to him.

"Well then. Let's go get her."

"Hold on." Shadow was all for getting Tikal back, but there were things that had to be done. And he needed some time to get them all done. He turned to Sonic for his first order of business.

"How many Chaos Emeralds do you have?" he asked Sonic.

Sonic made a confused face.

"Uuuuuuhhhhh….just the one."

"Alright then. I regret saying this, but I need your help."

Shadow told Sonic his plan. And Sonic smiled when he got to the end.

"Then let's go hunting."

Sonic stood on the edge of the mountain ready to jump down.

"One more thing." Shadow said before Sonic jumped down. "What was the name of that girl you said you dated?"

"Oh. Sally Acorn. Why?"

"Brown squirrel? Red hair? Blue eyes?"

What? Shadow knew her?

"Where did you…" Sonic stopped short.

"Rose set me up with her once last month." Shadow replied.

"Really?" Sonic smirked at the thought of Sally across the table from Shadow. "What happened?"

"She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran out of the restaurant."

That was the response Sonic was hoping for.

"Okay. Cool. Now let's go."

Shadow nodded and then he and Sonic both jumped off the edge of the mountain and started to run down the side of it. If there was one thing the relationship between Shadow and Tikal was NOT, it was definitely not over.

**Me: Alright then.**

**Tikal: Hey hey! Whoa! AK! What's going on here?**

**Me: Uuuuhhhh…not really following.**

**Tikal: Well it looks like you're getting ready to end this story.**

**Me: Well, Tikal…you're right. The next chapter will indeed be the final chapter in this story.**

**Shadow: But you can't end it yet. I haven't had enough badassness!**

**Knuckles: What are you going to do next, AK?**

**Me: Well, I'm not so sure yet. But that's up for the readers to decide. **

**I have a poll up asking people what I should do next. Check it out for yourself and vote. But in the meantime, I gotta get to work on m AutoKnights story. The final chapter of this will be up ASAP. But until then, peace bitches.**

**P.S.: Also, the first game of the World Series is on Wednesday October 27, 2010 on FOX. Root for the Giants!**


	15. My Life Would Suck Without You

**Me: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOO-HOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!**

**Vector: Let me guess. The Giants won the World Series?**

**Me: YOU BET YOUR GREEN SCALY ASS THEY WON! 4-1! **

**Cream: Well, congratulations, AK.**

**Me: Don't congratulate me, Cream. Say congratulations to the San Francisco Giants. Especially Timmy Lincecum who pitched eight straight innings, and Brian Wilson for closing it out with his awesome beard.**

**Amy: Beard?**

**Silver: I looked it up on Google. Brian Wilson has the most perfect beard you will ever find.**

**Blaze: Nah. I'm not really a big fan of beards. I like a smooth face.**

**Tails: Technically I'm the only one here who has one. Everyone else's muzzles have no fur. Except for Cream and Blaze, but they're girls.**

**Blaze: Are you calling me a bearded lady?**

**Shadow: Why are we talking about beards right now?**

**Tikal: He's right. Did you all forget what this is?**

**Amy: *GASP* That's right! This is…**

**Me: That's right, Amy. This is the final chapter. I could have made this go longer. But I have other work to do on this site. It's been fun writing this and it was really great. But let's do this. I'll do the final honors. The only thing I own here is the plot of this story. All the characters are owned by SEGA. **

**So please, enjoy the final chapter of Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Shadikal: How is it Possible?**

**Chapter 15: My Life Would Suck Without You**

**(Angel Island; Master Emerald Shrine; 11:50 PM)**

It was nearly midnight and the crescent moon was straight overhead. And on Angel Island, Tikal was all set to leave. She had gotten dressed in her old tribal cloths which she had worn before she had arrived here. Everyone she had met and befriended in the past two months was there to bid her farewell. Well…everyone except for Shadow of course. Amy, Tails, Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, Rouge, even Cream and Cheese showed up to say their goodbyes. But oddly enough, Sonic was the only one who hadn't shown up yet out of everyone who was invited. Cream was on the verge of tears because she hated saying goodbye to her friends. Tikal went up to her first.

"You take very good care of Cheese, Cream. He's very lucky to have you for a friend." The echidna said.

Cream literally jumped on Tikal and squeezed her in a tight hug.

"Oh I wish you didn't have to go!" the little rabbit sobbed.

"I wish I didn't either, but there's nothing here for me. I belong inside the Master Emerald. I always have."

Tikal eventually got free of Cream and then she walked on over to Knuckles and Rouge.

"Thank you both for all you have given me." She said.

"It was our pleasure, Tikal." Knuckles said with a smile.

All three of them engaged in one group hug and then it was Silver and Blaze's turn.

"You two have something special. I really hope you guys stay together forever."

Silver and Blaze just looked at each other and smiled.

"Believe me, we do to." Blaze said.

Blaze and Tikal hugged each other and Silver shook her hand since he really didn't know her all that well. Then she walked over to Tails.

"I remember meeting you in a vision you had that transported you my time. Do you remember that?" she asked.

Tails smiled and pulled something out of his chest fur. It was the purple rhythm badge he had received in that flashback.

"I haven't taken this thing off ever since. I like the way it looks on me."

Tikal giggled. "It looks cute on you."

Tails blushed a mad red when she said that. Tikal giggled again and hugged the kitsune to which he blushed again. Then it became Amy's turn.

"I have a lot to thank you for, Amy. Especially the whole dating experience."

Amy lost her smile when she remembered who she set the echidna up with in the first place.

"Tikal…are you sure you don't want to say goodbye to him?" the pink hedgie asked.

Tikal stood firm when she gave her response.

"Positively. Seeing him just hurts too much. It'll be better this way."

Amy shrugged. She didn't agree with her but she just waved it off. Amy lost the bet and there was nothing she could do to change that. After one last hug, Tikal looked around.

"Where's Sonic? I thought he would be here?"

Amy wasn't really fond of hearing his name right now.

"Who knows and who cares?"

Tikal had gotten used to Amy's occasional rude behavior by now. So with Sonic gone, the goodbyes were complete. All that was left to do now is walk up the stairs of the shrine and into the giant green rock.

And then she slowly started to. Every two seconds, one of her two feet advanced up the case one step at a time. As she did, she could only think about one thing that would not leave her thoughts. Shadow. Guilt is what she felt. Even she knew that going away forever without telling him is wrong, but it wasn't something she was going to change her mind about either. Then halfway up the staircase…

"WAIT!"

…his voice shot at her forcing her to stop in her tracks. She looked behind her and down to see Shadow at the bottom of the staircase looking up at her. And Sonic was right behind him.

"Tikal, please."

"It's too late, Shadow. My mind is made up. I'm leaving."

"Why? Because I blew up part of the forest? Tikal, I know what's going on. You're running away. That's what this is. And I can't let you do it! Just please listen to what I gave to say."

Tikal's expression grew stern.

"I'm not running away! And I don't have to listen to a single word you have to say! This is why I didn't tell you I was leaving! Who here did anyways?"

"I did."

Sonic took a step forward and raised his hand. Amy and Tails were obviously surprised that Sonic would blow his chance of winning the bet.

"Tikal, I think you should listen to him. Granted me and Shadow aren't really close friends, but he's YOUR closest one. And I think he's earned your ears for at least a few minutes."

Tikal shook her head.

"Well I don't."

With that, Tikal turned around and started to advance up the stairs quicker.

Knuckles and Rouge looked at each other. They had lived with Tikal for the past two months. And everyone knew that Tikal was the happiest when she was seeing Shadow. They weren't about to let it end like this.

Both Knuckles and Rouge literally jumped all the way up the staircase and passed Tikal on the way up. They landed at the very top and blocked her way to the Emerald.

"Tikal, Sonic is right. Just listen to him."

"Or else." Rouge added.

Tikal eyed the bat strangely.

"Or else what?"

That's when Knuckles did what he considered to be the most horrible thing he had ever done.

He turned around right in front of the Master Emerald and reached his balled up fist back as if he were ready to punch it. Rouge raised her right leg and got ready to perform a powerful kick on the rock.

Now Tikal got the message.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Normally I wouldn't, Tikal. But this has gone on for long enough." Knuckles said in a serious tone.

"He's right, sweetie." Rouge agreed. "All Shadow wants to do is talk. And since this is the last time you're ever going to see him, you at least owe it to him to hear him out. If you don't, Emerald goes bye-bye."

No one had ever threatened Tikal before, but the reaction to being faced with something like that is like a reflex to everyone. She thought they would really do it. And they weren't afraid to. Giving a hard sigh, she turned back around, and walked down the stairs to face Shadow. When she got there, Shadow looked back at everyone else.

"Could we get some privacy here?"

Everyone nodded their heads. What was about to happen wasn't meant to be seen in front of a full audience. So all of them went inside Knuckles and Rouge's house. Knuckles and Rouge themselves however stayed put where they were to make sure Tikal didn't bail. And then the girl asked the first question.

"Why did you come here, Shadow?"

Shadow took a deep breath. He had a lot to say.

"I came here to stop you from making a big mistake."

"No, Shadow. I realized this a few days ago. The mistake was coming here in the first place thinking it would be any different from where I came from. It's not, Shadow. It's no different and it probably never will be."

"So you're just gonna back into that rock again because you can't deal with the few problems this world has?"

"I can't stand violence, Shadow. I thought you understood that."

This wasn't going to be as easy as Shadow though it would be. Since the battle with Eggman, Tikal had become harder to talk to.

"I understand you hate violence, Tikal. I understand that very clearly. But what you have to understand that it doesn't matter where you go. There are always going to be problems in every world you find. Not every world will have peace. But sometimes, peace is something that has to be fought for. Especially against Dr. Eggman."

"But I'm scared, Shadow." And her soft voice expressed it.

"Scared of what? Me? Cause if I'm what scared you that day than I'm deeply sorry for it. But you have to understand that I wasn't trying to frighten you. I was just making sure that you would be safe."

That caught Tikal off guard.

"You were fighting…for me?"

"Of course."

Well that was new. Tikal had never heard such an expression. Her father only fought for power and domination. But he never once said that he fought for a person before.

Shadow took a step closer to her and he didn't back up.

"You don't need to be afraid, Tikal. You might not know this, but this place actually IS different."

Once again, the echidna became confused.

"How? Tell me now, Shadow. How is this place any different from where I came from?"

"Because…back in your time…you didn't have me."

Tikal looked back up into Shadow's ruby red eyes. Then the hedgehog slowly took her hands and held them up in front of both of them.

"You never had anyone to comfort you in times you were scared." The ebony hedgehog said in the softest tone he's over spoken in. "No one to hold you close…rock you back and forth...and whisper into your ear that everything's going to be okay."

And then Shadow did just that. He gently pulled Tikal into him and put his arms around her back. Then he gently swayed to the left and to the right. And Shadow was right. Tikal needed just that.

Tikal was loving having her head against Shadow's chest right now, but she wasn't done asking questions.

"Shadow, did you come here to stop me from leaving because you're my friend, or is there another reason?"

The two of them separated and Shadow paused. Everyone inside the house and on top of the shrine wanted to hear the answer to that question as well.

"I came here because…I don't want my life to suck anymore."

Tikal didn't know what he meant since she had never heard the expression before. But lucky for her, Shadow had a lot more to say.

"Two months ago before you came here, Tikal, My life was horrible. I was alone, I was mad all the time, and I was pretty much a jerk to everyone who came within two feet of me to simply say hello. My life was sucking big time."

Tikal had no problem believing that. And now she understood what 'sucked' meant.

"But then…you came along. And my life was starting to finally look up. It was like I had been waiting all my life for someone like you to come around and save me. You can't leave Tikal. My life would suck without you. It did before you came here and I know it will if you leave."

Tikal hung her head down and looked at her feet thinking Shadow was done. But he wasn't.

"And I know that deep down you really don't want to leave. You've made so many friends here and I know you don't want to leave them all because of one little spot of violence."

At that moment, Tikal buried her head into Shadow's fluffy white chest fur, and began to cry her eyes out. Shadow had no clue what to do or why she was even doing it in the first place. But when he heard her soft sobs, instinct took over. He did exactly what he said he would do. He held her gently and cradled her to comfort her.

"Shhhh. It's okay. I'm right here."

Tikal looked up with her eyes still overflowing with salty tears. Her voice sounded broken.

"Oh, Shadow! You were right! I was running away! I was running away because I just don't know how to deal with a world that always has hatred in it!"

How could anyone not understand her pain? Her own father practically ordered his own men to attack her, so how could she not be afraid?

"Shadow I'm still scared. What do I do when I'm scared?"

Tikal let a few sobs loose before she heard this.

"Whenever you feel scared, all you have to do is remember that your friends are behind you no matter what and they'll help you through it. And you have to remember that I'll be right next to you whenever you need me to protect you. I'll keep you safe, Tikal. I'll keep you safe come hell or high water."

Bam. Tikal just had an epiphany. She had finally realized how foolish her actions have been over the past few days. This place was different after all. Sure there was still danger in this world, most of it being in the form of Dr. Eggman. But the thing is…no one really cares. As long as people focus on the positive things in their lives and live them to fullest, it doesn't matter. None of the danger bugs them because they have their dreams.

Tikal began to squeeze Shadow into one of the hardest hugs she had ever given to anyone.

"Please don't go, Tikal." Shadow whispered. "My life would suck without you."

Tikal looked up at him again. This time her face was sporting a small smile.

"As long as I have you, I'll never leave this world. Because…my life would suck without you too."

Everyone spectating that moment spread a huge smile on their faces. Tikal was staying. And Shadow got his friend back.

But Shadow was there for a reason. To make Tikal go higher than normal friend status.

"Tikal, I want you to come live with me."

Tikal looked at Shadow again confused once more.

"Live with you? But you don't have a house."

"Yeah, about that. Sonic told me about your decision to leave almost five hours ago. And I wasn't ready to let you leave. I had to do three things first before I came here. And I did them all."

Knuckles and Rouge relaxed themselves after Tikal said she wouldn't leave. Silver opened one of the windows of the house with his telekinesis so they could hear better.

"What were those three things?" Tikal asked.

Shadow looked at her and smiled.

"You remember our first date when I told you about how I was offered a job at GUN where Rouge works but I turned it down?"

Tikal nodded.

"Well…the offer was still valid. So I took it."

"You work at GUN with Rouge now?"

Shadow nodded. Rouge on the other hand couldn't believe what was happening. Never in her wildest dreams would she think Shadow would ever become employed anywhere in the universe.

Then the conversation between the two went on.

"Why did you accept the offer now, Shadow?"

"Oh. That's because I needed to have a job in order for number two on the list."

Shadow reached behind his back and Tikal expected him to bring out a Chaos Emerald like usual. But instead, he brought out a small photograph and handed it to her. The photo was of a beautiful white Victorian style house with two stories and a brilliant front lawn.

"That house is in Emerald Hill." Shadow said.

"Whose is it?" Tikal asked.

Shadow gave another smile when he gave the answer. And the answer was one word and four letters.

"Ours."

Her eyes bugged out as she transitioned her line of sight from Shadow to the photo over and over again. By the tenth time, Shadow had to stop her head from moving with his own hand.

"You bought us a house?"

Shadow nodded his head

"Yep. And it's all ready to be moved into."

Tikal threw himself into his arms again giggling of happiness.

"Shadow, it's gorgeous!" she shouted in a state of total euphoria. "I'll just go pack my things and we'll go move in right now."

"Actually…" Shadow had to stop her. "…before we go move in together, you need to know what number three was on that list."

Tikal shrugged. "Okay. What was number three?"

Shadow smirked and took a step back and away from her. Then, like magic, the green Chaos Emerald started to float around Shadow in a perfect circle above his head.

Then the other six gems joined the green one in its orbit. Red, Blue, Cyan, Silver, Yellow, and Purple.

"Number three was…find all seven Chaos Emeralds."

The girl's head tilted in a bit of curiosity to that task. But then the reason came forth.

"I've shown you a lot of things, Tikal. And there's one more thing that I want to show you. But I can't do it here. On the ground."

As Tikal's confusion reached the highest point of the night, something amazing began to happen. Shadow closed his eyes and then all seven Chaos Emeralds began to spin even faster until they looked like a giant rainbow colored ring. Then they began to shine brighter than they ever have until Tikal was blinded. She closed her eyes and covered them with her hands because it was so bright. Knuckles and Rouge did the same thing. Everyone else inside the house was fine because they were a distance away.

When Tikal regained her vision, she looked and saw what the Emeralds had done.

Shadow's black fur had turned creamy yellow but he retained his red stripes and white in his chest fur. There was also a flaring aura of energy coming off of him. Smiling at Tikal, his feet rose up two inches off the ground and he floated over to her.

"Shadow?" She was barely able to speak.

"No. Super Shadow."

And Super Shadow he was. Tikal had only seen two transformations with all seven Chaos Emeralds. One was when Perfect Chaos evolved, and two was when Super Sonic transformed to stop Chaos. Now there was another Super in front of her. And she was taken away by his beauty.

Shadow offered her his hand. But Tikal was a bit hesitant at first.

"It's alright. I won't hurt you."

Tikal looked right at him and saw that his smile was still there. And it never looked better than it did right now.

With nothing more to fear, she grabbed his hand with her own. Then Shadow pulled her up to him so that her feet were on top of his. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her, and squeezed solidly.

"Hang on tight." He said.

Tikal nodded and squeezed him as tight as she could. Then Super Shadow turned around and slowly rose himself upwards and started to fly over the trees of the island's forest. Everyone else slowly walked up to the spot where the two of them just were and watched as Super Shadow's yellow streak of light grew longer.

Super Shadow started out flying slowly so Tikal could get a feel for it. And the girl was absolutely loving what was happening right now. She now hated herself a bit for almost making such a stupid mistake by leaving. How could she leave this person she's so close to and not say a single word? She realized now that it was selfish. But Shadow was with her now. And she was back to feeling like she always did whenever she was with him. Happy.

She looked down and saw that Angel Island was no longer below them and that it was far behind. They were now over the ocean with the moon sparkling down onto it reflecting off the gentle waves. Just for the hell of it, Super Shadow flew down there and soared right above the water. Tikal could see her reflection in the water, the moon was so bright.

But then, Super Shadow pulled up and started to gain speed. He was now flying straight up towards the sky and even broke apart a few clouds as he did.

"Shadow, this is too high!" Tikal looked down and realized she was a bit scared of heights.

"It's alright. I've got you." The super hedgehog gently assured her.

He kept his word. He held her tight and said that everything was going to be okay. And that was enough for Tikal not to be afraid anymore. But she closed her eyes for reasons even she didn't know.

Super Shadow kept his eyes on his path and still made a straight line straight up. Then he looked back down and saw that he was right where he wanted to be. He slowed down and floated in the air.

"Tikal, open your eyes."

Tikal slowly opened her eyes, and once again got her breath taken away by what this hedgehog had shown her.

Super Shadow had flown all the way out into space. He and Tikal were now looking down upon the whole world. And in Tikal's eyes, it never looked more beautiful. All the water made the world look like one giant fruit that she could take a bite out of.

"I would like to give you all of this, Tikal." Super Shadow said as he enjoyed the view with her.

Tikal looked like she was about to start crying again. But this time out of sheer joy. She stopped herself however and wiped her eyes.

"Shadow, you don't need to give me the world. I'm fine knowing that I have you."

Super Shadow was always amazed by how this girl was with him. At first, he thought that she would just run off like all the other girls did. But this particular one stuck around. And thank goodness she did because like he said, his life would suck without her and vice versa.

"Tikal, most of my first memories that I remember were made out here in space."

Their faces were about two inches apart.

"But thanks to you, I'm finally ready to make some new ones. With you."

"Let's have the first one be right here. Right now."

Shadow got the idea of what she meant. The two of them slowly started to inch their faces closer to each other and puckered up their lips. And then…

BONK!

Instead of locking lips, they both ended up conking each other's forehead. It wasn't really surprising. The two of them had never kissed anyone before.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Tikal cried as she rubbed her head.

"Here. I got it."

Super Shadow took Tikal's hand away and kissed her forehead where it was hit. Then his eyes bugged out when he quickly figured out what he had just done. When he looked Tikal in the eyes, hers were wide too.

"That was good." She whispered. "Now do what you just did…on my lips."

Super Shadow was ready for this and Tikal was too. Going in slower now, they moved. Their eyes closed and then a few seconds later…

Success.

Super Shadow and Tikal shared their first kiss all the way out in space right above the planet that both of them loved. After ten seconds, the parted.

"Wow." Tikal liked that experience.

"I love you, Tikal." Super Shadow finally said it.

And Tikal was ready to hear it.

"And I love you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

They started to kiss again and this time they had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Down below them on Angel Island, Rouge's laptop was powered on and once again, GUN's surveillance satellite was being used to spy on Tikal and Shadow one last time. Everyone had gathered around and watched the two declare their love above the planet.

"Congratulations, Shadow." Silver said happy for his friend.

"We can talk about this tomorrow, Silver. Right now…" Blaze was cut off by a yawn. "I'm pretty tried."

"Come to think of it, I am too." Tails agreed.

"Mother doesn't like it when I'm out this late." Cream said.

"I'll fly you home in the plane." Tails offered.

Cream accepted the offer and then everyone started to leave. Silver picked Blaze up bridal style and then flew off with her using his psychic powers. Tails turned on the Tornado 2 and Cream got in the backseat with Amy while Sonic stood on the wing. The plane took off as Knuckles and Rouge waved goodbye and then the two of them walked back into their house hand in hand.

First Tails dropped Cream off and explained to Vanilla why she was home so late. Vanilla understood and politely bid goodnight to them all. Then it was just Tails, Amy, and Sonic.

"I guess this means that I win the bet." Amy happily stated.

"Actually, Amy…" Tails held out a watch so Amy could see it. "It's 1:00 in the morning. And Shadow only confessed fifteen minutes ago. Sonic's been the winner of this bet for an hour now."

Amy felt depressed. She had come so close to winning. But yet, it took an hour too long it seemed. With a frown and sad eyes, she looked at her blue crush.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in a month." She moaned.

"Yeah." Sonic murmured back.

The three of them all turned away ready to go their own way. But then Sonic froze. We all know how Sonic is.

"Amy."

Amy stopped in her tracks. Tails did too since he had no idea what was going on.

Amy looked back to see Sonic looking right at her.

"Name the time and place for the date."

Amy gasped. So did Tails.

"But, Sonic. I lost the bet. It's after midnight." Amy wasn't really sure Sonic got that.

"Oh screw the timeframe." Sonic walked up to her. "Amy, you did something that hardly anyone ever does in this world. You made the impossible happen, Amy. You helped Shadow find his happiness. That was the whole point of this bet. And you made it happen. You deserve to be rewarded for what you've done. And the reward is me."

Amy felt like she was the happiest girl in the world. Well...second happiest. Tikal was in first right now.

"You win, Amy. Now set the time and place and I promise you I'll be there this time."

Amy grabbed Sonic and gave him one of her infamous bear hugs. Sonic gasped for air and Tails thought he was dreaming. Sonic just willingly accepted a date from Amy.

Eventually, Amy let go.

"I'll see you later, handsome." She began to walk away. "I'll get back to you on that date. I have a LOT of ideas."

Sonic chuckled as Amy ran home. Tails walked up to him.

"Do you have any idea what you just did?" he asked.

Sonic looked down the path Amy ran and smiled.

"I think so, Tails. I think so."

With that, the two went home. Above the planet's atmosphere, Super Shadow and Tikal were still kissing each other. After another five minutes passed, they finally decided to go to their new home.

Sonic and Amy DID go on their date like he promised.

But hey…that's another story.

**Me: It's done.**

**Sonic: Congratulations, AK.**

**Me: Thank you.**

**Espio: So what now, AK?**

**Me: I actually need help with that, Knuckles.**

**For those of you who don't know, there is a poll in my profile that will decide my next piece of work. But it's very close and I can't decide. So I need you to help me. If you haven't voted, then vote. If you have, tell your friends to vote. But I need a decision by at least next Monday. **

**Thanks goes out to everyone who helped make this my second most popular story right after A Spy's Day Off.**

**I'll be back soon with my next piece. But until then, as always, peace bitches.**


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